The Congress party has a lot at stake in the four state Assembly elections, especially since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are only a few months away. The strategy of Congress, which is in power in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh and is the principal rival in Telangana and Madhya Pradesh, differed from state to state. So how did the Congress go about its poll campaign and streamlined electoral strategy in these five states? TNM finds out.
Rajasthan
Rajasthan has a trend of alternating governments. This time around the election was considered a one-sided affair as historically the state has not elected the party in power. However, the Congress decided to use the full might of its organisation to effectively communicate with the voters to buck the trend.
The poll management group of the Congress led by strategist Sunil Kanugolu had a lesser role to play in Rajasthan, barring providing a list of probable candidates and ground-level inputs. It was Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who took all decisions related to campaign strategy and poll management.
A war room was set up under the leadership of former IAS officer Sashikanth Senthil to connect with the grassroot workers of the Congress at mandal and booth levels. For four months, the Congress war room designed several booth-level activities on a weekly basis on the political, social and cultural front to engage with the voters.
A war room was set up under the leadership of former IAS officer Sashikanth Senthil to connect with the grassroot workers of the Congress at mandal and booth levels. For four months, the Congress war room designed several booth-level activities on a weekly basis on the political, social and cultural front to engage with the voters.
While Chief Minister Ashok Ghelot had implemented several welfare schemes and projects, the war room’s effort was to communicate these to the people and push the Congress’ guarantees.
A leader who was deployed by the Congress high command in Rajasthan told TNM that Ashok Ghelot’s entire campaign was designed on the basis of welfare schemes, communication strategy and organisational push. “In the last leg of the campaign, the Chief Minister spent considerable time in the war room interacting with grassroot Congress workers at the mandal and booth-level. The war room became a ‘connect centre’ between the leadership and the voters,” the leader said.
Telangana:
Among the five states, Sunil’s team had the most leeway to implement ideas in Telangana. The campaigns launched by the Congress party in Telangana were made creative and assertive enough to capture the attention of the voters. A Congress leader told TNM that the entire team that worked for the Karnataka election was shifted to Telangana.
The Congress campaign for Telangana was designed based on the statehood movement promises of Neelu (Water), Nidhilu (Finance) and Niyamakalu (Employment). The Congress party raked up charges against Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao to expose his failure on all these fronts. They raised allegations of corruption against him in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project and held the CM responsible for the poor financial condition of the state with a staggering Rs 5 lakh crore debt. It also made the TSPSC exam paper leak and unemployment key issues in the election.
One of the campaigns by the Congress called ‘Doralu vs Prajalu’ targeted KCR’s larger than life image. Doralu means landlords and Prajalu means common people. The coinage of this term helped the Congress to tap into 10 years of anti-incumbency against KCR’s government.
The Congress was aware that it would be difficult to take on the strong resources and infrastructure of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in a seat-to-seat electoral fight. A member from Sunil’s team told TNM that the poll management team’s idea was to create a wave in favour of the Congress in Telangana and they were successful in doing that because of the strong anti-incumbency factor against KCR and his family members. “When the public started to respond to our campaigns we decided to intensify it,” she added.
Frequent visits by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to Telangana made a huge difference and helped to shore up support for the Congress party. Telangana PCC Chief Revanth Reddy too gave a free hand to Sunil and his team to design the electoral strategy. The Karnataka election victory had energised the Congress workers at the grassroots level and all units of the party worked in tandem to put up a tough fight against KCR, considered an undisputed leader in Telangana.
Madhya Pradesh:
While the Congress leadership is hopeful of winning Madhya Pradesh, the party High Command and its poll management team had little role to play in the state. A Congress leader told TNM that it was “Kamal Nath’s show and he was in complete control of the situation”.
The Congress in the state banked on their poll promises and 18 years of anti-incumbency faced by incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Shingh Chouhan. From selection of candidates to campaign strategy, Kamal Nath and his team handled it all, said Congress insiders. “The candidate list suggested by Sunil’s team was rejected by Kamal Nath,” said a leader.
Unlike Telangana, the Congress was unable to come up with a strong campaign against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh. The campaign strategy largely revolved around farmers suicide, price rise, corruption, unemployment and 18 years of BJP’s rule. But the Congress managed to set the narrative by announcing their guarantees and forcing the BJP to indulge in competitive populism and tone down their hardcore Hindutva agenda.
Going by the exit polls which suggest a close contest between the BJP and the Congress, the silent organisational work seems to have played a major role in the final days of the campaign. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was initially sidelined by the BJP High Command but it later launched an aggressive campaign in the state. Congress insiders however said the BJP is not the enemy in Madhya Pradesh, it is the RSS that has a strong ground presence in Madhya Pradesh.
Chhattisgarh:
Like Rajasthan and MP, the Congress poll management team had a limited role to play in Chhattisgarh. According to insiders, the poll management team’s role was confined to suggesting probable candidates and providing ground level inputs. It was Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel who single handedly ran the show. The campaign strategy was largely focussed on Congress party’s poll promises and the schemes implemented by their government.
The BJP launched a last minute aggressive campaign by reaching out to the tribal community and announcing several schemes. TNM spoke to Congress leaders and they are confident of the party’s victory but they also feel that the BJP’s outreach may have an impact on the numbers in tribal areas.