THE
QUESTIONS
1. Can Congress expect the intervening one
year will help it recover some lost ground expecting the time may abate the
feeling of anger against the Congress led previous union government?
2. Would the party be able to draw mileage
from 'AAP breaching the trust of Delhi voters by deserting the Delhi government
in just 49 days' to increase its tally?
3. Even if the seven months of Narendra
Modi led NDA government have performed exceedingly well on the foreign policy
front, the government has nothing much to talk about positive changes back home
beyond declaring some major policy changes, policy announcements and structural
changes. There is some time before the nation would be able to realize the
impact of these changes and thus their scope and scale. Would Congress be able
to open a window of opportunity for itself here?
4. Everyone is writing Congress off.
Analysts are predicting it to be a Congress Vs AAP contest this time. Can
Congress leverage this position of 'hopelessness' around it to concentrate on
ground work? After all, from a historic low, any gains, especially in Delhi,
the national capital of India, would be morally boosting for the party?
5. Congress has chosen Ajay Maken, the
senior Congress and former union minister, as its campaign head for the
upcoming assembly polls. Would Maken be able to make any difference for
Congress? As a minister and as Congress spokesperson and media cell in charge,
he failed to leave any impact. The scene of Rahul Gandhi intervening in a press
conference being addressed by Maken justifying the government ordinance on
convicted lawmakers saying the ordinance was 'a complete nonsense' is still
fresh in our memories.
6. Ajay Maken and Shiela Dikshit were seen
as political rivals in Congress politics. Now, even the staunchest of Sheila
Dikshit's critics feel difficulty in rubbishing the fact that Delhi witnessed
significant development under her three terms. Sheila Dikshit has welcomed the
Congress move of choosing Maken. Would Maken be able to put aside differences
building on the work done by Sheila Dikshit giving her thus the credit?
7. Ajay Maken was appointed on the day the
Delhi assembly polls 2015 were announced. Some pre-poll surveys on the same day
projected even more fall for the party, from its all time low of 2013 assembly
polls. Though Congress won two seats in the Delhi Cantonment Board polls on the
day, such small scale electoral exercises can never be the criteria to think about
legislative assembly polls. Will Congress, away from making empty rhetoric, be
able to take cues from the past year and from such pre-poll projections to fine
tune its strategy including its chief-ministerial name and candidates to mount
a credible challenge to other parties in the fray?
8. Moreover, will Congress be able to
recalibrate its aim based on the reality of prevailing circumstances to
concentrate its efforts on maximizing the winning ratio, even if in a modest
range, a reality for the Congress of the day?
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
