FAILURE TO convey the extent of the state government’s failures, to realise the seriousness of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenge, and to draw up an effective strategy to counter the BJP – these were some of the reasons cited by Congress candidates from Saurashtra for the disastrous performance of the party in the recent Assembly polls, to a fact-finding committee in Ahmedabad Tuesday. Around 30 Congress leaders who contested in the polls met the three-member committee, set up by party national president Mallikarjun Kharge. It comprises former Maharashtra minister Nitin Raut, AICC secretary and Bihar MLA Shakeel Ahmad Khan, and AICC secretary and Odisha MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka. In the Assembly polls, for which results were declared in December, the Congress won only 17 of the total 182 seats, a sheer drop from the 77 it had won in the 2017 elections. The BJP, which has been in power in the state since 1995, romped home with 156 seats, the largest total ever in Gujarat. Of 54 seats in the Saurashtra-Kutch region, the Congress won only two while even AAP got four. In 2017, the Congress had won 30 seats from the region, confining the BJP to 23. Pravin Musadiya, the incumbent Congress MLA from Kalavad in Jamnagar district who lost to Meghji Chavda of the BJP, said: “I told the committee that we made the mistake of taking the AAP lightly. The traditional Congress voters thought the AAP was a better alternative, leading to a split in our support. Our party’s workers were not trained enough to tell the people that a vote for the AAP would only benefit the BJP.” Musadiya said he also told the committee that the Congress needs to project leaders “who can attract voters beyond the appeal of ideology”. Virji Thummar, who failed to retain his seat of Lathi in Amreli district, said the Congress had failed to showcase the failures of the BJP's 27-year-long reign. PTI quoted Thummar as saying: "The EVMs remain a factor. whether they can be tampered with is a different thing. However, people have realised that votes are transferred to the BJP even when they vote for the Congress.” Naushad Solanki, the former Dasada MLA who also lost, told the committee that Congress workers had raised the people’s voice consistently and even braved police atrocities, and the poll defeat showed the party leadership needed to relook at the Congress’s election strategy in general. “We must ponder as to where we are failing. Our strategies have not been successful in the past 27 years, and this is something we need to accept," Solanki said. Kharge formed the committee on January 4 to identify the reasons behind the Congress's worst ever defeat in Gujarat and recommend corrective measures. Raut said: "We started the first round of our meetings on Monday, and Tuesday is the last day of the first round. We have received a lot of information.” Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said that in the first phase, the committee received feedback from around 70 candidates. "They will meet the remaining candidates after three days, and will interact with organisational leaders later," Doshi said. The panel has been asked to submit its report within two weeks. Besides winning the lowest number of seats, the Congress also saw its vote share dip to 27.28% in the state. With PTI inputs
