Congress plays different strokes in Rajasthan & Chhattisgarh to continue on the pitch

NEW DELHI: In the two party-governed states, Congress has adopted contrasting strategies to win a repeat term in power - betting on the Ashok Gehlot government's appeal to lift the endangered legislators in Rajasthan, and dropping a large number of MLAs in Chhattisgarh to neutralise the anti-incumbency at the local level.

Of the five states going to polls, Congress is defending power in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The party expressed satisfaction with both Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel regimes, but internal surveys revealed that voter hostility was more at the constituency level. It prompted the Congress leadership to look at replacing a good number of legislators to offset the anti-incumbency factor, a radical step going by the conservative record of Congress in ejecting legislators.

However, the lists of candidates show that Congress has ended up adopting opposite tacks for the states with similar assessment of advantages and pitfalls.

Congress managed to drop 22 MLAs out of 71 in Chhattisgarh (31%). Traditionally, Congress, like most parties, would prefer this route but for the concern of rebellion or internal sabotage. However, CM Baghel and party strategists believed that any fallout from a massive makeover could be managed because the general mood in Chhattisgarh was in favour of Congress, and even a disappointed leader would not want to be against the party returning to power. Ultimately, the idea was that voters would not be averse to Congress provided anti-incumbency could be diluted at the constituency level by replacing the MLAs facing headwinds. Congress is going into the contest with the slogan of "bharosa barkarar, fir se Congress sarkar" (trust intact, Congress encore).

But the decision to drop just 23 out of 113 MLAs (including BSP inductees and independents) in Rajasthan, reflects a victory for CM Ashok Gehlot who argued that the polls were about a referendum on his face and record, and future promises, which could be trusted to lift the rocking boats of specific MLAs. The CM had indicated "survey-based selection" but changed his stance midway. Rajasthan is a volatile turf where every government in last 30 years has been voted out, but Congress is betting on returning to power on its record, reflected in the campaign tagline "kaam kiya hai dil se, Congress fir se".

Party MP Gaurav Gogoi, who headed the AICC screening committee, said, "Winnability was the criteria. We have fielded 28 female candidates and 44 first-timers, which is way better than BJP. The focus was on having more women and new-young faces."

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