NEW DELHI: As the campaign for the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections came to an end on Saturday, the one thing that went largely unnoticed was the absence of senior leaders, including the Gandhis, from the Congress election campaign.
While party president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra did not hit the ground at all, Rahul held only seven public meetings, five in Maharashtra and two in Haryana. The trio was in the list of star campaigners released by the party ahead of the elections.
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Sonia was to address a rally in Haryana on Friday but pulled out at the last minute because of ill health. Priyanka was active only on social media. Entrusted with the task of rebuilding the party in Uttar Pradesh after being appointed the state incharge, she avoided campaigning even for the 11 Assembly byelections.
This is in sharp contrast to the Bharatiya Janata Party brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, which descended on the ground with full force and led a high decibel campaign.
The Modi-Shah duo participated in about 50 rallies in the two states. The PM was strategically deployed in Haryana’s Jat belt to woo the community, which has traditionally kept the saffron party at a distance. Many Jats are employed in security forces, including the army, where Modi harped on nationalism and Article 370.
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Besides the BJP top two, many union ministers were also part of the campaign. But senior Congress leaders were missing in action. Among the few who went to the poll-bound states were former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad. While Azad, the party’s Haryana incharge, campaigned in the state, Singh held an interaction with industry bodies and the media in Mumbai. No other big faces were seen in public.
A senior Congress leader did not agree with the view that the top leadership avoided electioneering. “The party ran a successful campaign. Being state elections, leaders of prominence in poll-bound regions were deputed,” he said but added that Priyanka’s rallies would have spiced up the campaign.
For political observers, the absence of the Congress brass was all the more surprising given the all-round low morale in the party. Instead, schisms reared its head in both the states during the campaigning.
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In Haryana, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda gave Rahul’s rallies the miss. Rahul had sidelined Hooda for Ashok Tanwar, who has since quit the party after he was removed as the state party chief. Tanwar lent support to Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party and even campaigned against the Congress.
The divide was also visible in Maharashtra, where dissident Congress leaders Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam did not campaign. NCP chief Sharad Pawar played down the absence of Congress leaders from the electioneering, saying the grand old party was working hard on the ground.
Why BJP deployed Modi-Shah
The Modi-Shah duo participated in about 50 rallies in the two states. The PM was strategically deployed in Haryana’s Jat belt to woo the community, which has traditionally kept the saffron party at a distance. Many Jats are employed in security forces, including the army, where Modi harped on nationalism and Article 370.