Congress is wary that state elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and New Delhi to be held in December will impact its prospects in the 2014 general elections. Sheela Bhatt reports
“There is a debate going on in the Congress if it should hold Lok Sabha elections along with the state elections or not,” said a senior party leader while talking about current issues that are being discussed among the top leadership.
Currently, the election campaign is underway in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghlaya.
After the three northeastern states, Karnataka is scheduled to go to polls where the term of assembly is ending on June 3. The most crucial four state assembly elections are due in December. The tenure of the New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assemblies is ending in December 2013 while Chhattisgarh assembly’s term ends on January 4, 2014.
Lok Sabha elections are due only in mid-2014, but the Congress is wary of the preceding election process in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and New Delhi.
By all yardsticks, these are four important states with 590 assembly seats and 72 Lok Sabha seats. So when the results of these four states are out, the mood of almost one-fifth of the Lok Sabha will be reflected. The political stock of the Congress is so low currently that the party is contemplating if it should cut their loses by holding the state and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously.
However, the decision is not an easy one to make.
A section of the party believes that if in December, the Congress loses in Chhattisgarh, MP, Rajasthan and New Delhi it will have a fatal impact on the party’s prospects in the Lok Sabha elections. Even if it loses three states the psychological setback will be huge.
Also, the most crucial factor is that in these states there are Hindi-speaking areas where the presence of the Bhartiya Janta party is prominent and where the Congress is pitted against it directly.
In absence of prominent regional parties in these four states, the loss of the Congress will emerge starkly and will impact Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.
The party’s internal assessment is that in Chhattisgarh the chances of a win are bright and in MP it’s likely that Shivraj Singh Chauhan will overcome anti-incumbency.
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