Tripura over, Nagaland, Meghalaya coming, Rahul Gandhi, top Cong leaders nowhere in picture

This time, the party entered into an ambitious understanding with old rival Left in Tripura, and was allotted by all accounts a generous 13 seats, given its 2018 count. The new friends are seen as having a good chance in the state, given the anti-incumbency against the BJP government and given the narrow, bridgeable vote gap between the BJP and CPI(M) in 2018.

Despite this, the big leaders of the Congress stayed away from the campaign trail.

Leave aside Rahul, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge too chose not to campaign in Tripura. Kharge, interestingly, was in Jharkhand Saturday to launch the party’s Haath se Haath Jodo campaign.

Sources in the party said it is unlikely that any of the senior leaders would travel to Nagaland or Meghalaya, which go to polls on February 27, either – again a surprising abdication given the fact that the Congress was in power in Meghalaya till it lost to the National People’s Party (NPP) in 2018.

The Northeast accounts for 25 Lok Sabha seats, and the Congress can do with every extra one it can mop up.

What is surprising is that the party fixed the AICC plenary session for February 24 to 26 in Raipur, leaving the top leadership occupied with it. And then there are the visuals that came on Wednesday of Rahul skiing in Gulmarg, instead of taking time out for the Northeast states.

Distressed over the videos on social media of a skiing Rahul, a senior leader noted: “On the other hand are images on TV channels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a tribal festival in Delhi (on Thursday). I am not saying that the PM’s event would have had an impact on the tribal voting pattern in Tripura, but it certainly shows the difference in approach.”

Barely had Congress leaders reconciled to those visuals came news that Rahul would be travelling to Cambridge to deliver a talk. “Looking forward to visiting my alma mater @cambridge_uni and delivering a lecture at @CambridgeJBS. Happy to engage with some of the brightest minds in various domains, including geopolitics, international relations, big data and democracy,” Rahul tweeted, leaving many wondering whether he would quit the plenary midway.

The Congress tweeted its support, saying: “Shri Rahul Gandhi is not just the torchbearer of democracy in India… he is an accomplished intellectual who endeavours to enrich the public discourse.”

Some party leaders sought to make light of the absence of Rahul and Kharge from the Northeast campaign scene. “We were contesting in only 13 seats in Tripura. Kharge was busy as the Parliament session was on till February 13 (Monday). This session was crucial because of the Adani issue. We were cornering the Prime Minister and the government every day. So the big political message went out from Parliament,” as per one senior leader.

Another leader said that the Gandhis’ presence or absence was hardly a factor in these elections. While in Tripura, it is the CPI(M) that is the make-or-break factor in the alliance, the Congress is in dire straits in Nagaland, where it did not win any seats in 2018 either. Although it is contesting 23 of the 60 seats this time, it is not hopeful of winning more than two-three.

“The Gandhis are no more vote-catchers. It doesn’t make any difference whether they campaign or not. The Assembly elections have to be fought on local issues to negate the Modi factor in most of the states. If we are able to do that… we will taste success. The absence of Delhi faces only helps in some states,” the leader said.

In Meghalaya too, the Congress enters the coming elections with 0 MLAs. While it was in power till 2018, and was the single-largest party after that election, it was pipped to the post by the NPP. Then, in 2021, its last chief minister, Mukul Sangma, walked over the Trinamool Congress with nearly a dozen party MLAs.

Another leader argued: “Unlike in other states, big public meetings are not held in the Northeast, where leaders drop in and address. It is largely small meetings, even indoor meetings.” He added: “Our general secretary in charge (of Tripura) Ajoy Kumar was stationed there throughout. It is wrong to say that we took the campaign lightly.”

Apart from Kumar and Delhi leader Alka Lamba who was coordinating campaign efforts in Tripura, the only Congress leaders who came from outside the state were its leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, and leaders Deepa Dasmunsi and Gaurav Gogoi.

Rahul had stayed away from the last round of Assembly elections too, held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, though AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra pitched in, in Himachal. Party leaders say the Congress win in Himachal was because the campaign was woven around local issues and problems. “While Priyanka’s presence did help, as it sent a message that we are serious, the campaign was run on local issues and that clicked,” a leader said.