(1888PressRelease)
March 03, 2007 - New Delhi, Feb 27: While conceding defeat in the Uttarakhand and Punjab Assembly elections, Congress has blamed hike in the price of essential commodities and a large number of party rebels in the fray as the two main reasons. The party also said the division of secular votes led to its debacle.
The BJP has on the other hand welcomed the trends saying the people rejected the ruling Congress due to its anti-people policies. The party said the five-year tenure of Congress Party in Uttarakhand was full of scandals and sky rocketing prices of essential commodities and chief minister Amrinder Singh paid price for his personal attack against Prakash Singh Badal of Akali Dal in Punjab.
BJP MP from Garwhal has emerged as frunt runner for the post of chief minister. However, former chief minister and currently Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Bhagat Singh Koshiari is not willing to forgo his claim and maitained the the leader would be elected by the elected legislatures.
The Congress leadership says it would call a meeting of the Congress Working Committee to review the reasons behind the poll debacles in Punjab and Uttarakhand. The party has conceded that price rise at national level paid a vital role in party poll drubbing in two northern states. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also admitted this and said the government would make efforts to bring the rising price of essential commodities.
The party leadership has said it has taken serious note of the poll trends and results. It has sought a detailed report from the party leadership of both the states, which would be placed before the CWC, an apex body of the party for discussion and further action.
As the results started pouring in from Uttarakhand, the state Congress leaders engaged in blame game. The faction loyalist to the chief minister N D Tiwari held the state president Harish Rawat responsible for the debacle whereas the Rawat faction says the chief minister should owned the responsibility for he has been misleading the party and the people for the last five years whether he would lead the party in the elections or not.
They say it were the policies of the government, which led to the defeat of the party in Uttarakhand and not the party because the policies are framed by the government. According to initial analysis of Congress defeat in the Himalayan state the seeds for this debacle were sown five year back when the majority Rajput community of the state backed the Congress and the party leadership despite projecting a Rajput Harish Rawat as first Congress chief minister, installed Tiwari, a Brahamin as the head of the government.
From that time onwards the majority community had decided not to vote for Congress. Another reason is that the BJP played its card very well and successfully took advantage of already Kumaon Garwal divide by projecting Khanduri from Garwal as the chief minister. Singificantly, first a leader from Garwal has been projected as chief minister since the state came into existence. It worked as both Rajput and Brahamin community voted for the party like they did in successive Lok Sabha elections during height of Ram wave.
Since its inception, Uttarakhand has seen three chief ministers two from BJP and one from Congress. Of the three two were from Kumaon region and one Nityanand Swami was an outsider who had long back settled in Dehradun. The people from the Garwal region have not accepted this discrimination and were waiting for their turn.
In Punjab whereas price rise was the main reason, but the tug of war between Prakash Singh Badal and chief minister Amrinder Singh also played a vital role. During his five-yar tenure cheif minister left no stone unturned to fix Badal. It attitude of taking revenge angered the peasantry, which has always been with Akali Dal. Subsequently, Congress was routed even in its stronghold Malwa region of the state.
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