Toehold in Lok Sabha, revival of fighting spirit: Congress looks beyond bypoll losses

At 17, it was the lowest-ever tally for Congress in the Gujarat Assembly when state elections were held in 2022. With the resignation of four MLAs, including veterans like Arjun Modhwadia, the party’s strength further came down to 13.  All four leaders, who switched to the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections, have won the same seats in the bypolls.  With Thakor’s Lok Sabha victory,  bypolls will be necessitated in Vav too where she was elected as an MLA in 2022.

When the results for the 2022 elections were out, leaders of the Congress had blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had won five seats at the time. Within a year of the state election, one AAP MLA also quit to join the BJP.  What has changed for the Congress since 2022, however, is the alliance it forged with the AAP as part of the INDIA bloc ahead of the national polls.

Referring to the alliance, Gujarat Congress’s disciplinary committee chief Balu Patel told The Indian Express, “Dosti hai aur rahegi (friendship is there and will remain)”. “Congress does not betray anyone. It believes in continuing friendship and not stooping low for the sake of power. It will stand by the ones who have been assured support,” Balu Patel told The Indian Express.

Hoping that the Lok Sabha election results will serve a lesson to those who switch sides, Congress MLA Imran Khedawala said,  “The 12 of us (Congress MLAs) will also fight hard and no one else is going to leave. We will fight strong… we have not become weak.”  A legislator from Jamalpur Khadiya in Ahmedabad, Khedawala is the lone Muslim face in the Assembly.

Calling the party’s first Lok Sabha win in a decade from the state “a good sign”,  Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Shaktisinh Gohil said, “Practically, there will not be any effect as the numbers were already low even for the Opposition. But on the other hand, this is a very good sign as after 10 years, we were able to win one seat despite fighting against all odds. We did not let them (the BJP) have a hattrick.” The BJP had won all 26 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.

Khedawala echoed the sentiments, “Even with one seat, party workers are very motivated. This was not the case after the 2019 Lok Sabha results when everyone had lost hope.”

However, admitting that Congress is on a backfoot in the Assembly,  Khedawala said, “Now, we will only get 13 minutes in the Assembly session. Even as there is no restriction in the Question Hour…. there too questions on issues raised by Congress MLAs are listed lower in the sequence. We hardly get any time for discussions.”

On the Congress MLAs joining the BJP, Shaktisinh Gohil admitted that it can be termed as party’s chook (lapse).

“The manner in which the entire sangathan was given to an MLA – be it the block level or the district level – was a major jolt as when they switched over, and the entire sangathan also went away with them,” he confessed.

Congress’ working president from Saurashtra Rutwik Makwana admits the party’s presence has been diminished in the Saurashtra-Kutch region after losing bypolls in Porbandar and Manavadar where its former MLAs Arjun Modhwadia and Arvind Ladani defected to the BJP. But INDIA bloc’s Lok Sabha performance offers a ray of hope, he said.

“It is true that now the only Congress presence in Saurashtra is in Somnath seat. But the way the mood has changed in the country and the way Congress managed to break the pattern of the BJP sweeping all Lok Sabha seats in the state  by winning Banaskantha gives a message to Congress workers that if they keep working hard, it is possible for win polls. Geniben’s victory has provided them a ray of hope,” said Makwana.