The results of the five State Assembly elections, where the Congress lost in four, are not a rejection of the caste census issue, that the party had placed at the centre stage, a senior Congress leader said, adding further that it will remain one of the key poll planks for the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The party had promised that it will conduct a caste count in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh if it returns to power and in Madhya Pradesh if it wins. A similar promise was made for Telangana.
“Results are not a repudiation of the caste-census issue. It remains one of the central subjects for all parties in the INDIA bloc,” a senior Congress leader said.
After its poll pitch was rejected by the three Hindi speaking States – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan – is now in a huddle to devise its messaging for the 2024 general elections. The leader added, “The 2024 elections will be an assessment of the governance record of the 10-years of the Narendra Modi government. The question here is are you better off today?”
The Narendra Modi centric campaign, the Congress leader said, will be countered with “Main Nahi Hum” (Us not I).
The three issues that dominated the Bharat Jodo Yatra- increasing economic inequalities, social polarisation and political authoritarianism – will remain central to the Congress campaign, the leader added.
He further underlined that it is perhaps the first time in many decades that the party has reviewed the reasons for its defeat within a week of the results.
The next meeting of the INDIA bloc is slated to be held within a fortnight. The Congress leader said the attack on the Narendra Modi government alone won’t suffice. “INDIA needs to come up with a positive agenda, that will include the welfare model laid out by past Congress governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh,” he said.
When asked if the “Congress guarantees” failed to garner the enthusiasm among the voters that the party expected, the senior leader said that on the contrary it forced the Narendra Modi government to adopt the agenda. “They stopped referring to the welfare policy as “revdis” (sweetmeats). The attempt was instead to out-guarantee us,” he added.
