:: Editorial

Honeymoon for Cong continues

Oct.23 : The broad trends thrown up by the Assembly election in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, the results for which became available on Thursday, is that the honeymoon period for the Congress is not yet over five months after the Lok Sabha poll. The obverse of this is also, naturally, true. The BJP, as the main Opposition party, remains low on performance and on morale. Clearly, the fights within are still taking a toll. As party spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said to the media when the results were being announced, the BJP must learn to speak in one voice. The party had done exceedingly well in byelections to Assembly seats in a large number of states last month, leading to the belief in some quarters that it might be in the process of turning the corner. That is evidently not the case yet. By hinting at only organisational failures of his party, the BJP spokesman has obviously underplayed the magnitude of the problem that the BJP faces. The Congress has performed far better than its opponents because the latter offered no counter-narrative. If they had, the voter might have been more willing to listen to criticisms of the Congress, especially on the disastrous prices front. As things were, the electorate went along with the Congress line that the party was best able to provide a secure environment for economic and social activity.

Within the larger discourse of continuing support to the Congress, there are naturally state-level trends to refer to. Arunachal Pradesh is the easiest to understand. It threw up no complexities. The state is known to go with those who rule at the Centre. Of the remaining two states, it is Maharashtra that compels attention, not Haryana, although it was widely thought that the latter would be a cakewalk for the Congress. Every indicator now suggests that the Congress would be able to form the government in the state. This will be a record. Incumbents have never been returned to power in Haryana. But it turns out the Congress had a real fight on its hands. Unsuspectingly, Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD offered very stiff resistance, although Opposition parties in the state were badly divided. Such was the result that theoretically it permitted the non-Congress elements to upstage the Congress if they came together.

But Maharashtra has been a revelation for the Congress-NCP alliance. The party romped home although it was in the fray for the third consecutive term. This is indeed an achievement and could bolster chief minister Ashok Chavan’s claim to continue to lead the government. Had the ruling alliance fallen short of a majority, Mr Chavan might have held a weaker hand. The Congress turned out to be much stronger than its ally in terms of seats won. But it is still too early to say that the NCP is a write-off. Among all the parties in the field in Maharashtra, it alone won 50 per cent of the seats it contested. It would have proved disastrous for the Congress not to ally with it, as some senior leaders were suggesting earlier. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance suffered badly in this election. A key reason for this is the rise of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. This party now bears watching. It has shown the potential to hijack the Shiv Sena’s élan. Nationally, the Congress would breathe easy after this round of state elections, but it needs to engage in some retooling and renovation in policy terms.