Opinion - Editorials   

Congress piles up losses

After writing off Tripura, population-wise the biggest of the three northeastern States that went to the polls recently, the Congress was hoping for compensating wins in Meghalaya and Nagaland. However, despite doing better than in Tripura, the Congress finds power out of its grasp (assuming it will not be tempted to resort to constitutional impropriety). In Meghalaya, where it finished as the single largest party with 25 of the 59 Assembly seats for which elections were h eld, it has been outmanoeuvred by a post-election alliance of the Nationalist Congress Party, the United Democratic Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hill State People’s Democratic Party, and the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement. Along with two independents, the newly formed coalition claims the support of 31 members in the 60-member Assembly, enough to constitute a majority. In Nagaland, the Congress is completely out of contention for government formation. The Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), a pre-poll combine of the Nagaland People’s Front, the NCP and the BJP, was decisively ahead of the Congress, which could win only 23 seats in the 60-member Assembly. The Meghalaya experience should be a cause for political concern for 10 Janpath. That all the rival parties felt the need to move to the other side speaks poorly of the Congress approach to alliance building. The real problem seems to be a mindset rooted in the past; a refusal to come to terms with reality through defeat and victory alike; a big brotherly style of functioning; and an inclination to behave like a party with an electoral majority while being in a minority. Even the NCP, which is an ally at the national level and in Maharashtra, is wary of doing business with the Congress in the northeast.

In Nagaland, the party ruling at the Centre hurt itself in the run-up to the election by imposing President’s Rule just before the term of the DAN government ran out. Although Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio lost majority support in the Assembly with several of the NPF members crossing over to the other side, the imposition of President’s Rule with just a month to go for the election clearly did not go down well with the voters. The Congress appeared overly keen on seeing that its political rival was not in power at the time of the Assembly election. In Nagaland, where every central intervention is viewed with suspicion, the brief period of President’s Rule was in the nature of an own goal. The lesson for the Congress from the northeast elections goes to the heart of federalism: thou shall not seek to invoke — and misuse — New Delhi’s power against political rivals in the smaller States.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Congress piles up losses
Skilled workers in short supply
The Democratic Party’s red phone fortnight
One nation, indivisible
Oh! What a lovely waiver
It boils down to voter turnout in Spain
Unnecessary
On jihad
Timely

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu