(Advocate Shehzad Poonawalla is a Congress supporter and has been a part of its team)
As the Delhi election result trickles in, the AAP's stupendous victory that has seen the party get 67 seats out of total 70, has many a political message embedded in it, not just for the BJP and the Modi government but also for the Congress party. Amidst all the jubilation and celebration, let me be the party spoiler and enunciate just a few at the outset for my party- the Congress.
If there are any Congress supporters out there, taking heart from the fact that the Modi-Rath has been stopped or that the BJP has been reduced to single digits, I'd think that their sense of delusion would perhaps even outweigh that of the BJP and its spokespersons! The Congress, until just about 15 months ago had 7 MPs and a state government in Delhi! One that lasted for 15 years with a formidable track record of development! Let's make no mistake, Delhi grew and prospered under the Sheila Dikshit government.
Yes, the perception of the party, especially at the Centre took a beating after the IAC (Anna Hazare -Lokpal movement). And since then the party has been on a downward spiral as far as perception, image and communication is concerned. The Lok Sabha elections saw the Congress going from 206 to 44. Clearly, that was the time to assess the flaws in the Congress' communication armoury. Over the last 15 months the Congress has done precious little to improve its communication wing, create resources in mainstream or social media and fight the perception battle! In fact, it has only gotten worse with the party literally succumbing to propaganda against its top leadership without even a whimper! In my previous piece for IBN Live (read here:http://m.ibnlive.com/news/has-the-congress-communication-department-let-rahul-gandhi-down-hellyeah/507643-37.html ) I have spoken about this problem at length!
The Congress party had a good chance in Delhi this time around, no matter what anyone else would suggest. We had seen our worst phase (or so one would have thought) in December 2013 when, battling 15 years of anti-incumbency and poor perception, we were down to 8 seats but with 24 per cent vote share. The 8 months of Modi rule in Delhi that followed, had instantly evaporated the anti-incumbency baggage to a great extent from the Congress. Delhi cantonment polls held a few months before saw the Congress vote share go up by a healthy 11 per cent! The Congress had much going for it! And to then, lay down its arms, lose even those 8 seats and fall to about 10 per cent of vote share indicates that the entire campaign failed badly!
The traditional vote banks of the Congress in Delhi drifted to the AAP completely despite the Congress actually reaching out to them with its policy mix and manifesto! Muslims, lower classes and SCs, who were looking to consolidate against the BJP, seemingly found the AAP to be a better choice than the Congress. That, to me, is a clear indication of the fact that the Congress was unable to create the right kind of ambience locally and nationally to convince these sections to return to the party.
The Congress in the past weeks, notwithstanding electoral setbacks has continued to show its commitment to reforming into a leaner, cleaner unit under its vice president Rahul Gandhi. In this election too, for all of AAP's 'projected goodness', it was actually the Congress that put up candidates with the least amount of criminal cases as per the ADR and other election watchdog NGOs. Rahul recently went ahead with discussing the roadmap for bringing in greater democracy within the party and connecting it to the grass root leaders. This is a process that will take time given the obstacles involved at various levels. In the long run, the Congress would under Rahul Gandhi create a party organization that reflects the aspirations of the grassroot supporters, draws leaders from the local level and facilitates better policy making.
But the party continues to lack the ability to highlight this and many of its achievements like it failed to do in the case of Delhi! The expectation was that Ajay Maken, as chief of the Communications department, who has been heading the unit for some time now, would be able to draw most out of a team he handpicked! The campaign however seemed to be extremely uninspiring. Right from the content to the strategies - be it in social media, outdoor campaigns, and local campaigns or on television, it seemed that the Congress was not in the race! So even when the Kalkaji and Sultanpur roadshows by Rahul Gandhi drew massive crowds, it did not translate into votes! It indicates that whatever little confidence is being inspired by the Gandhis is being fritted away by a lack-lustre organizational and communication set up.
The greatest learning for the Congress party in this election would be to focus not just on long term projects of organizational revival and re-structuring but also the short term where communication strategy at all levels must be over-hauled to ensure that the party worker and supporter remains inspired and does not shift his/her support to what may seem to be the strongest anti- BJP alternative.
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