Chandigarh: Parliamentary elections were considered a litmus test for Assembly elections in Haryana scheduled to be held in October. With the BJP winning all the ten seats in the state, it has got its wings and a boost ahead of the Assembly elections. For the Congress, it would be an uphill task to motivate the demoralised cadres and put up a fight in order to capture power.
The emphatic win by the BJP and total decimation of the Congress and other Opposition parties has raised confidence of the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections. Even as other political parties, especially the Congress, are yet to get their act together, the BJP is already in an election mode, gearing up for Assembly elections with a clear eye on winning 70 of the 90 Assembly seats. The BJP is gearing up for “Mission 70” in the Haryana Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in October.
“The party is fully geared up to win over 70 seats in the Assembly elections if the Lok Sabha trend is any indication. The BJP’s performance in the 2019 Assembly elections will be far better than its performance in the 2014 elections, when it won 47 seats,” said Ram Bilas Sharma, education minister. The BJP won 47 seats in 2014 and formed its first government on its own. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the party had won seven of the 10 seats.
High on confidence, the BJP has already started preparing for Assembly elections, before the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results. The party held its first brainstorming session of senior leaders in Rohtak on May 20, followed by a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party in Chandigarh the next day.
It was at the second meeting that broad contours of the strategy for the Assembly elections were chalked out. It was resolved to form a committee to work out the election manifesto.
On the other hand, the Congress is still recovering from the shock of results after its total washout. The state leadership has woken up to the need to prepare a blueprint for the coming Assembly election.
The Congress has called a meeting of all the senior leaders and candidates who contested the Lok Sabha elections to draw up reasons for their loss and surge of the saffron party. The party has 17 MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha. It was the third largest party till the split in the INLD and formation of the JJP.
While Congress candidates attributed their loss primarily to a “Modi wave”, they claimed that infighting within the party, lack of organisational structure at the grassroots, uninspiring leadership and inability to put up a united face despite the “parivartan yatra” were among the reasons for the defeat.
The drubbing at the hands of the BJP saw only Rohtak candidate Deepender Hooda put up a fight while all other seats seemed a cakewalk for the BJP, with its candidates walking away with huge margins.
Unlike in other states, including neighbouring Punjab, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ashok Tanwar has not tendered his resignation owning “moral responsibility” for the defeat.
Senior leaders seem prepared with their reasons for the stock-taking exercise, but are yet to come up with ideas of revving up the demoralised rank and file.
