The Congress on Sunday moved to hone its campaign machinery by harnessing the resources of tributary organisations to take on an arguably more battle-ready and organisationally primed Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Kerala affairs Deepa Dasmunshi chaired a meeting of the office-bearers of Congress-led service organisations and trade unions to equip the party to fight on two fronts simultaneously.
War rooms in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies will catalyse the Congress campaign. They will spearhead electoral battles on the airwaves and the ground.
Congress’s gambit reportedly centres around the strategy to eclipse its perceived vulnerabilities while accentuating the “faults” of the Union and State governments. It wants to outdo the CPI(M) and the BJP by having more doorstep conversations with voters.
Nevertheless, Congress’s rivals have sufficient policy ammunition to undermine the party’s electoral standing among crucial electoral blocs.
Scope for counterattack
For one, the CPI(M) has accused Congress of toeing a soft Hindutva line and being “embarrassingly racked by indecisiveness” over whether to reject the BJP’s invitation to attend the consecration of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, despite counting the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) as a critical ally.
The Congress-led INDIA bloc had termed the event a political spectacle orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar to galvanise Hindu votes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP has, in turn, accused Congress of turning its back on Hindu beliefs.
NSS, SNDP stances
It also did not help Congress that the NSS and SNDP, both politically influential Hindu social organisations, which have often hewed to Congress in varying degrees, have urged their supporters to celebrate the temple inauguration.
Moreover, given NSS’s staunch objection to the move, the Congress was constrained to put on mute in Kerala its national leadership’s pitch for a caste census to recalibrate the country’s reservation policy.
Preserving strongholds
The CPI(M)‘s pro-rubber farmer politics, the BJP’s overtures to the Christian community and the tangible threat from the KC(M), a key LDF ally, have forced the Congress to walk the extra mile to preserve its traditional heartlands in central Kerala.
Congress leaders have also repeatedly aired their visceral fear about possible last-minute tactical voting by the CPI(M) and the BJP to sink its prospects in key battleground constituencies, primarily Thrissur, Wayanad and Thiruvananthapuram.
However, some Congress leaders feel that Rahul Gandhi’s possible candidature from Wayanad might relegate the issues currently animating the campaign to the back burner, given the twists and turns that lie in the months ahead as Kerala goes to the Lok Sabha polls.
