As Congress dissects poll rout, leaders point to ‘missing cadre’, polarised election

One major question that senior party leaders, including state president Ajay Kumar Lallu and some national secretaries, faced on Monday from the candidates was “where is the cadre” even as “polarisation” of voters by the ruling party BJP was blamed by many as a crucial factor.

Even as Lallu denied having had any official review, sources said that the party leaders and candidates held day-long deliberations on the assembly poll debacle at the party headquarters in Lucknow.

Sources in the party said that before the elections, organisational leaders had assured that at least 10 member committees were formed at every booth before the election but many candidates got less than 1,000 votes in assemblies having about 400 booths. Many attributed the loss to “polarisation” in which the Congress failed to attract either side of the divide.

The state party president said that party focused on politics of issues when actually the narrative of the election had become completely different. “Humnei muddon pe chunao lara (we contested the poll on issues),” said Lallu who failed to pull out a victory from Tamkuhiraj in Kushiangar that he represented twice and finished third.

Other leaders, however, also questioned the purported monopoly over candidate selection and failure to understand the mood on the ground. In candidate selection, they said, “too much importance” was given to outsiders.

They also highlighted the high command’s failure to build cadre and to keep the leaders with significant voter base in their areas in the party fold.

“We were told that 10 youth committees were formed at the booth level in every constituency. There are about 400 booths in every Assembly segment. But a candidate getting 1,200-1,500 votes means that even those 10 members that party claimed were party workers also did not vote for the party nominees,” said a party candidate, adding “Not even women got votes.”

Nearly all the leaders were unanimous on the view that AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra worked hard and came up with ideas that could have clicked but said there was no cadre on the ground to “execute” the same.

In a letter to Priyanka, AICC member and party spokesperson Anshu Awasthi recently demanded a “transparent review” of the party’s performance and fixing of responsibility besides seeking action against those who “broke the trust of the workers”.

“Leadership ne mehnat mein kami nahi ki. As a political party jo karna chahiye tha sab kiya. Har musibat mein khare hue, lekin sangadhan nahi tha piche khare hone ke liye (The leadership worked hard and did what was required. But there was no organisational back-up,” said a party leader.

A candidate pointed out that if leaders were given a schedule, no one would have said no. “The campaign was outsourced to outsiders with whom the cadre could not connect. Thus, we could not reach out to the masses with our message,” he claimed.

The last government the Congress formed in UP was formed in 1985 after winning 269 of the 425 seats. But in 1989, it lost to the Janata Dal and could secure only 94 seats .