Today in Politics: No end to Congress woes — from J&K, Himachal to Karnataka. What next for the party?

Plus, Priyanka Gandhi will address two election rallies in Jammu and Rajnath Singh is in Haryana.

In Jammu and Kashmir, where Congress is in alliance with the National Conference (NC) led by the Abdullahs, the party is leading the charge in Jammu.

It was supposed to be a story of the Congress’s continued upswing in the Assembly elections. But, from Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana to Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, it is increasingly appearing to be a story of a party beset by factionalism, lack of coordination with allies, and even legal troubles.

In Jammu and Kashmir, where the party is in alliance with the National Conference (NC) led by the Abdullahs, the party is leading the charge in Jammu. But things apparently have not gone to plan. Former J&K Chief Minister and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah has said that his party entrusted the Congress with a significant number of seats in the Jammu division, a BJP stronghold. But, “unfortunately, the Congress has not done as much in the plains of Jammu as we expected them to do”, Abdullah has remarked.

Coming from a steadfast ally, this is a big question mark on the campaign that the Congress ran in Jammu. But the signs that all was not well in the coalition were there all along. As Naveed Iqbal reports in an article published Saturday morning, “It has been a mixed bag for the National Conference-Congress campaign as an alliance.” While the two parties managed to strike a seat-sharing deal for 85 of J&K’s 90 seats and kept rebellions to a minimum, the “top leaders of the NC and Congress were rarely seen together on the same platform”, Naveed writes.

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The third and final phase of the election is scheduled to be held on October 1, which means just two more days are left for campaigning. To give the party a last-minute push, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be in Jammu on Saturday to address her first election rallies in the Union Territory. Priyanka will first address a public meeting in Billawar in Kathua before heading to Bishnah in Jammu. However, Rahul Gandhi is not expected after he failed to make it to Jammu on Friday after his plane was grounded by poor weather in Delhi.

Congress troubles in the other states

It is more about intra-party rivalry between various factions in Haryana, the other poll-bound state. The state unit there is essentially controlled by Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and that has isolated other senior leaders, among them Sirsa MP and former state Congress president Kumari Selja who kept away from the poll campaign for two weeks before the party’s national leadership convinced her to make a public appearance at Rahul Gandhi’s rallies in the state on Thursday.

As Liz Mathew reports from the Kurukshetra-Karnal region, published in The Indian Express front page today, several voters believe the Congress has a clear edge and there is significant disenchantment with the BJP but the ruling party cannot still be ruled out completely. One cannot help but think if that to a large degree is down to the infighting in the state Congress.

Then there is the ever-simmering troubles for the party in Himachal Pradesh, a state that it nearly lost in February. The current source of trouble is state minister Vikramaditya Singh who has raised the high command’s hackles by saying the state government had decided that every eatery and food stall in the state would have to display the owner’s ID card. Congress sources told Manoj C G that a furious party leadership summoned Singh and Himachal Congress president Pratibha Patil, his mother, and pulled up the former. However, later speaking to the media, Singh stuck to his comments, saying they were “within the ambit of law and in the interest of the people of Himachal Pradesh”.

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The Congress is also in an uncomfortable position in Karnataka, one of the three states along with Himachal and Telangana where it is in power. On Friday, the state Lokayukta Police filed an FIR against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and three others in the alleged MUDA (Mysore Urban Development Authority) scam. The party has thrown its weight behind Siddaramaiah, its most important Backward Classes leader in the state.

But if his legal troubles mount, will the party, and most importantly Siddaramaiah’s chief rival and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, stay the course? Similarly, how will the party deal with Vikramaditya, and can it keep a united front in Haryana till the elections are over? These are among the burning political questions and we will be at hand to help you make sense of the developments.

Also happening today:

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to address poll rallies in Haryana. First, he will be in the Guhla Assembly constituency in Kaithal district, where the event is expected to begin around 2.15 pm. Then, Singh will be In the Badli Assembly seat in Jhajjar district around 4.20 pm.
BJP national president J P Nadda will first travel to Patna and later in the afternoon to Hyderabad to take stock of the party’s membership drive.