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Journalism of Courage
The Congress, which huddled in Bhopal following a drubbing in the recently-concluded Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, laid a large part of the blame for the loss on EVM tampering, with both Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh lending their weight to the claim.
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting, held after the party was reduced to 66 seats in the state, saw discussions also on booth-wise voting patterns, discrepancies in postal votes, and administrative pressures that could have influenced the results.
State Congress chief Kamal Nath is said to have rallied party workers to commence work for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections and not dwell on the Assembly poll loss.
The state Congress chief will head to Delhi and then embark on a state-wide tour to prepare for the Lok Sabha polls. As a part of this tour, senior Congress leaders too will head to district and block-level areas and discuss the reasons for the Assembly loss with ground-level workers, sources said.
Speaking to reporters outside the Congress headquarters in Bhopal, Nath said, “Some MLAs told me that they got only 50 votes in their village. How is this possible? Whoever knew the result in advance must have conducted an exit poll to create a narrative.”
The MP Congress chief asked party candidates to analyse their performance and submit two reports – on their poll performance and organisational aspects – within the next 10 days.
Nath said he could come to a decision on Congress leaders’ claims that the EVMs were hacked only after listening to everyone. “You know how the atmosphere was. Don’t ask me, ask the people,” he said.
Former MP CM Digvijaya Singh said he had not trusted EVMs since 2003. “We pressed the button but don’t know where the vote went,” he added.
Digvijaya Singh and Nath’s statements come at a time when the Congress has been pointing out that the party managed to bridge the gap with the BJP in terms of vote share, pointing out that it got 40% of the votes in the three states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – despite losing the polls.
“It is true that the performance of the Indian National Congress in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was disappointing and far below our own expectations. But the vote shares tell a story of a Congress that is not very behind the BJP — in fact, it is within striking distance. This is the reason for hope and revival,” Congress communication department head Jairam Ramesh said on Monday.
Five-time MLA Sajjan Singh Verma, who lost from Sonkatch, also blamed EVM tampering for his loss. “During our discussions, it emerged that the EVM battery was at 99 per cent. How is it possible that the EVMs have a 99 per cent battery on result day after being extensively used during voting? They (EVMs) were used for 11 hours after which they were stored in strong rooms. Even Tesla, whose electric cars don’t run for this long, would be stunned by this. We were ahead in postal ballots. There has been some mischief,” Verma told the Indian Express.
The five-time MLA also said Nath had assured Congress candidates of the party’s backing. “Nath, while speaking to the winning candidates, asked them to discuss why they did not win by higher margins. He assured the losing candidates of the organisation’s backing,” Verma said.
On the INDIA bloc and the future of the Congress, Verma said senior leaders of all parties should keep their personal interests aside and come together. “Only then can we fight the BJP,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vikram Bhuria, son of former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria alleged that the police was misused and the Model Code of Conduct was violated while EVMs were also tampered with.
“ There is manipulation, not magic, of the BJP. The EC chose to look away while money was used to influence elections. Funds under the Ladli Behna scheme and Kisan Samman Nidhi were disbursed days before the polls,” he said.
Meanwhile, former minister Umang Singhar, who won from Gandhwani and had attacked Digvijaya Singh for “running the government from the backroom”, apologised for his comments on social media.
“I may have had a difference of opinion but there was no discord. This is the time to be united. We were winning on ballots and lost on EVMs. We will prepare a report in the next three days and take action on that. I don’t think tribal votes swayed away from the Congress. An investigation is required into the matter,” Singhar told the Indian Express after the meeting.
Congress’s “giant killer” Rajendra Bharti, who defeated state Home Minister Narottam Mishra from Datia claimed EVMs could have been an issue but the state leadership (of the party) will look into it. “I managed to defeat Mishra as he is a TV leader and not a ground-level one. There was massive anti-incumbency and public anger against him,” he said when asked how Mishra lost if the EVMs were faulty.
A few Congress leaders, however, blamed other factors for their loss. Priyavrat Singh, nephew of Digvijaya Singh and sitting Khilchipur MLA, who lost to the BJP’s Harilal Dangi said there was a serious need for introspection over the loss.
“The Congress has to analyse in which direction the party is headed and ensure that this result is not repeated in the Lok Sabha elections. Nath has called everyone and is making them go back to work. There must be a change in our roadmap as we were rejected by the people. We should work on that. I don’t have any evidence of EVM tampering and will not raise questions on that now,” he said.
Anubha Munjare, who won from Balaghat, said the “game changer” Ladli Behna Yojana was the reason for her party’s loss.
Senior party leaders on the condition of anonymity said the lack of a robust organisation cost the Congress the election. “The fact that we could not counter the BJP at the booth level was raised in the meeting. The BJP has more resources and has offices in every district while Our offices are not even equipped to hold meetings. We had to book hotels for campaign meetings. We cannot fight elections like this,” a senior leader said.
Head of the Dharmik and Utsav Prakosth Richa Gosawmi said it was too early to say if the soft Hindutva pitch of the Congress failed. The organisation was formed by Nath after the 2020 loss as a counter to the BJP’s Hindutva agenda. “We managed to set up committees in 49 districts but could appoint only 38 district leaders. In some committees there were only three members. I could hold my sabhas only in Chhindwara, Sonkatch and Sawer. I could not hold a single meeting in the Malwa region,” she said.
