Date:17/12/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/12/17/stories/2002121705411100.htm

National

Cong. yet to come to terms with poll debacle

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 16. Senior Congress leaders today put their heads together in an attempt to understand the nature of the defeat in Gujarat. The day saw a series of introspection meetings involving the State and Central leaders, culminating in an extended session with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.

The party is trying hard to come to terms with the extent of the defeat and its fallout. The introspection exercise is aimed at arriving at the right diagnosis before even an attempt is made to treat the malaise.

Prominent among those who took part in today's deliberations were the Gujarat PCC chief, Shankersinh Waghela, Amarsinh Chaudhary and the AICC general secretary in-charge of the State, Kamal Nath. The Central leadership was represented by Arjun Singh, Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmad Patel and Ambika Soni.

The State and Central leaders met at Manmohan Singh's office and were later closeted with the Congress president till late tonight. Ms. Gandhi is expected to widen the ambit of introspection and a meeting of the CWC is likely in the next few days.

While no heads are likely to roll at least immediately, the Congress leadership is worried over the failure of the State leaders and the numerous observers that were placed on the ground for months, to gauge the public mood or the intensity of the post-Godhra polarisation. Though the party spokesperson said that no strategic mistakes had been made, there was a feeling in the party that it erred grievously in its strategy by soft-pedalling the secularism issue and thereby giving the impression that it had deviated from its core beliefs.

Those charged with the responsibility of leading the party in the State, and at the AICC level are likely to be asked some tough questions by the Central leadership. "It is one thing to say that we were done in by the unprecedented polarisation, what is equally inexplicable is that our people had no idea what was about to hit us,'' said a senior leader.

Today's exercise is the first of a series of such meetings, intended to help the party come up with answers to the Gujarat debacle. It appears unlikely that the leadership will go for a surgical operation or that heads may roll. "Nobody is being held responsible," said a senior leader. At the moment the party is of the view that the loss is more in the nature of a setback which was brought about by the unprecedented Hindutva wave and not "due to any strategic mistakes".

The party spokesperson, Jaipal Reddy, admitted that the impact of the post-Godhra polarisation may have been underestimated, but added that every possible effort was made to tackle the problem. "Our reverses were in direct proportion to the riots that affected the State,'' Mr. Reddy said. He also admitted that the party met with only limited success in its efforts to shift the focus to development issues.

Though the spokesperson put up a brave front on the spill-over effects of the Gujarat results, specially with respect to Rajasthan and MP, those charged with the party's electoral strategy are more than worried about it becoming a reality. "The challenge now is to prevent them from replicating it in these States, said a CWC member.