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Rift, poor governance reasons for Cong debacle

By AJIT PATOWARY

GUWAHATI, May 17 � Rift within its organisation and its failure to provide good governance resulted in the poor show of the Congress in the State in the general elections this time, said Prof Sandhya Goswami of the Gauhati University (GU) Political Science Department. Like on the earlier occasions, Prof Goswami was associated with the CSDS-Lokniti Post-Poll Survey and Analyses this time too. Prof Goswami is also a former Head of the Department (HoD) of GU Political Science.

Talking to this correspondent, Prof Goswami said the Congress-led State Government failed to address properly the structural issues like population explosion, ethnic issues and development-related issues. This increased its distance with the people.

The State Government also failed to implement its avowed development schemes like the ones connected with generation of employment and enhancement of welfare of the people. Moreover, corruption was also involved in implementing some other schemes.

The State Congress failed to forge effective alliance with the organisations or parties of the ethnic groups in the desired line. It also failed to exploit the situation resulting from the virtual absence of an Opposition in the State.

The above factors drifted the people away from the Congress and by this time a nation-wide longing for a change in the political leadership in the Government and pursuit for an able leadership added a special dimension to the entire scenario. All these factors were responsible for the poor show of the State Congress in the latest Lok Sabha elections, said Prof Goswami.

Prof Anuradha Dutta, also a former HoD of the GU Political Science as well as a former Chair Fellow of the Peace Studies Centre of the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, maintained that the schemes adopted by the State Government mostly remained on papers. This had upset the people much. People were also disgusted with the family-centric rule of the Congress.

However, she said the most redeeming feature of the general elections this time is the consciousness demonstrated by the voters in general and the younger ones in particular. If this continues, it would help strengthening the country's democracy in the coming days, said Prof Dutta.

Prof ANS Ahmed maintained that its arrogance of power, over confidence and complacence, rift within its party organisation, lack of cohesion in the day-to-day performance of the Government it is leading, among others, were responsible for this poor show of the State wing of the Congress in the latest Lok Sabha elections.

He warned that the days of the Congress are perhaps numbered in the State unless it works unitedly, reach out to the people and regain the faith of the people.

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