New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday put up a brave face saying its performance in the Gujarat polls may not be as bad as was being projected in the exit polls even as party president Mallikarjun Kharge took feedback from the AICC team. According to sources, Kharge asked AICC general secretary in-charge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma for an update on Tuesday after the exit polls published on Monday predicted that Congress would bag 35 to 40 seats out of 182.
“Things are not so bad and the exit polls may actually go wrong. We are awaiting the results on December 8,” AICC secretary in-charge of Gujarat BM Sandeep Kumar said. The exit polls had come hours after the party had claimed to win 125 seats in the western state where it had been banking on its agenda to wrest power from the BJP, which has been ruling the state for the past 27 years.
“Our ground-level campaign went off very well for the past several months. We went to the voters in a door-to-door campaign to explain to them what we do if we come to power and the BJP’s failures. In comparison, the BJP never highlighted the achievements of its government during the campaign. Instead, the PM took part in several roadshows,” said Sandeep Kumar.
The AICC secretary pointed out that the exit polls had given a similar number of seats to the Congress after the 2017 assembly polls, but the party finally won 77 seats. However, the AICC leaders put up a brave face as the exit polls on December 5 did cause some anxiety among the party strategists prompting them to once again review the polling that took place on December 1 and December 5 respectively.
Though in charge Raghu Sharma briefed Kharge in detail about the party’s Gujarat poll prospects on December 4, he rechecked the facts and figures with the various functionaries on the ground on Tuesday before submitting a status report to the Congress president. According to the party’s internal review, which has been shared with the national president, the Congress is expected to get at least 60 seats in the worst-to-worst case.
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Out of this, the Saurashtra region may fetch a minimum of eight seats, south Gujarat 22, while north and central regions may return 15 seats each. Though the AICC strategists are awaiting the final figures on December 8, an internal assessment has indicated that the alleged misuse of state machinery by the ruling BJP, tampering with EVMs and influence of big industrialists may have caused a dent in the Congress’ prospects despite the grand old party’s positive campaign.
“We suspect an EVM role but can’t go public with it,” said a senior AICC functionary involved in the review process. Furthermore, the entry of AAP may have also caused harm to the Congress’ prospects, said the party insiders. Over the past months, the AICC had deployed huge resources and manpower to supervise the Gujarat polls at the booth level. This included a large number of AICC and state observers, who kept in touch with the booth-level teams on a regular basis.
“The feedback from the ground was positive. Hence, we are suspicious about the exit polls,” said a Steering Committee member. However, a section of the AICC is also of the view that while there was enough monitoring by the central team, the state teams did not live up to the expectations. “Infighting had been a problem in the state unit over the past few years and several MLAs leaving the party helped create a negative impression about the Congress,” said a senior state leader.
He further stated that this gap was covered through extensive consultations with the local leaders before choosing candidates for the seats where the MLAs had deserted the Congress. “We had no problems in finding suitable candidates in Valsad and Kaprada,” said a senior leader. The AICC strategists are also concerned over the projections that the grand old party has not been able to do well in the south Gujarat region, which is dominated by the tribals and had been a major focus area of Rahul Gandhi, who could not devote enough time in the campaign as he is leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“It is puzzling why the tribal areas have not shown the desired results. We hoped to do much better in south Gujarat this time,” said an AICC leader. Another cause for concern that has emerged from the latest internal review is that while the voter connects programmes were 80 per cent successful in the villages, the outreach lacked energy in the cities, where the BJP has traditionally been strong.“The exit polls are worrying if they are true. For now, we are reviewing our internal systems and waiting for the final results. All our feedback showed an anti-incumbency for the BJP, but it would call for a serious review if they still manage to hold on,” said a party strategist.
