Party shields Rahul against critics

NEW DELHI: With the Congress party’s worst-ever tally of 44 seats in Lok Sabha polls, the chorus for a thorough revamp and surgical actions to stem the rot have grown as its apex decision making body, Congress Working Committee, meets on Monday. Though there are murmurs regarding the style of working of Rahul Gandhi itself, an exercise has already begun in the party to insulate him from the responsibility even as the Congress vice president held himself responsible for the poor show of the party in the elections, Press Trust of India said. The meeting to be chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi at the AICC headquarters is expected to last for around two hours and indications have it that the meeting could see a number of leaders raising uncomfortable questions about the performance of some key figures close to the party’s vice president, who led the party campaign for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. PTI said there were demands from the leaders that this time the customary practice of setting up a committee to go into the reasons for the defeat and then forget it should not be repeated and accountability should be clearly fixed and action taken wherever there are individual respon- sibilities. “Serious introspection is needed but surely not like in the past when suggestions arising out of the introspection were never implemented,” Anil Shastri, who is a special invitee to the CWC, said on Twitter. Shastri, son of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, has been maintaining ever since results were out that the party needs “serious introspection” and immediate corrective measures to check problems like party hoppers managing to get tickets and old-time partymen being ignored in the process. Accepting responsibility for the poll debacle, Sonia and Rahul have conceded that the mandate in the Lok Sabha polls was “clearly against” Congress and said there was “lot for us to think about”. As several union cabinet ministers lost in their respective seats miserably, a senior party leader said that there was a total disconnect of the ministers with party workers and their `arrogance’ is to be blamed for the backlash against the party. There is also a view that Congress has paid the price for not having strong regional leaders and `ignoring’ a few that could have held the fort. A general view in the Congress is that the issue of price rise and corruption went against the party and the situation was exploited to the hilt by Narendra Modi by tapping the anti-incumbency sentiment. In the winner’s camp, as preparations for government formation gained momentum, Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi on Sunday called on party patriarch L.K. Advani after holding consultation with a number of party leaders including his key aide Amit Shah in New Delhi ahead of the formation of the next government headed by him. Apparently to signal that the 86-year-old leader is being kept in the loop over key decisions, party general secretary Ananth Kumar also visited Advani’s residence before Modi’s arrival. The meetings at Advani’s residence came a day after the BJP Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of the party, met here for the first time after the party’s landslide victory in the elections to decide issues related to government formation. Earlier on Sunday, Modi held talks with BJP leaders. He held a meeting with his close aide Amit Shah, party general secretary J.P. Nadda, former chief minister and Karnataka strongman B.S. Yedyurappa and Bihar in- charge Dharmedra Pradhan. Political developments in Bihar in the wake of resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are understood to have also come up for discussion, party sources said. BJP is maintaining a wait-and-watch stand in the state, they said, against the backdrop of the JD(U) legislature party mee- ting on Sunday to elect a leader. Meanwhile, Modi will be formally elected as the leader of the BJP parliamentary party at its meeting on Tuesday ahead of oath-taking. BJP chief Rajnath Singh has said the NDA allies will also be invited for a meeting on the same day where the leader of the coalition will also be chosen. Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2014