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Bid to identify reasons behind Cong�s poll debacle

By PRANJAL BHUYAN

GUWAHATI, June 7 - The principal Opposition Congress party has started a review process at the block and district levels in Assam to �identify� the reasons behind the debacle suffered by it in the recent Lok Sabha polls as well as to plug the shortcomings within the organisation.

Sources in the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) told this newspaper that an extended executive meeting of the party will be held on June 15 during which feedback from the various district and block units will be taken up for consideration and a formal report will afterwards be sent to the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

�The party�s units at the block and district levels have started a review process seeking to find out the reasons behind the poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

�On June 15, a state-level review will be conducted during a meeting of the extended executive committee of the APCC at the Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati. Senior state-level leaders as well as representatives from the AICC will be present during the meeting on June 15. Later, a detailed report will be sent by our state committee to the party high command,� a senior APCC office-bearer told The Assam Tribune.

He added, �in addition, the state committee after considering the reasons behind the poor Lok Sabha poll performance, will also take some decisions to rectify the situation and implement necessary measures to strengthen the party at the grass-root level across Assam.�

It is noteworthy that the Congress party was able to win only three out of the total 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam during the recent parliamentary polls. It had won three seats during the previous Lok Sabha polls of 2014 as well.

�However, our vote share in Assam has gone up from 29.90 per cent in 2014 to 35.44 per cent this time. Yet we were not able to translate the growth in our vote share to gains in the number of seats.

After completion of the review, the party is likely to constitute a few teams comprising senior leaders which will visit various places across the state and meet our local-level office-bearers, party workers as well as the voters.

Our aim will be to ensure that we can revive the fortunes of the party during the months to come and fight the 2021 Assembly elections with renewed enthusiasm. For that, the most important task will be to further strengthen our party�s organisation at the grass-root level,� opined a Congress leader.

Sources in the main Opposition party said while the exact reasons for the Congress� lacklustre performance in the Lok Sabha election will only be known once the review is completed, some preliminary analysis has been done by it which have identified certain factors behind the electoral debacle.

�One of the primary reasons we have identified is that this time the parliamentary election was centered on the image and personality of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People voted for Modi and not for the individual candidates of the BJP and the NDA. That worked against our party.

Secondly, the BJP played the politics of entitlement by announcing a number of new schemes in the months leading up to the elections. That swung a large section of voters. If you look at the voting pattern in the tea gardens of Assam, you will notice that at many places there has been a total shift of votes to the BJP. The Modi government, with its direct transfer of benefits in the guise of social welfare schemes, was able to secure the swing in the mood of the electorate along with their support,� said a Congress source.

He added that in two or three constituencies, wrong selection of candidates impacted the Congress party�s prospects. The Congress party is also looking to gear up for the upcoming election to various urban local bodies in the State.

�The election to the Guwahati Municipal Corporation as well as to other local urban bodies will provide us an opportunity to once more energise our party workers in the State,� said the leader.

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