Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

Congress pays for disunity

HUBLI: The poll debacle of the Congress in Gadag, Haveri and Dharwad districts where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 15 of the 17 Assembly constituencies has made the party leaders ponder over some issues that they had neglected so far.

Although bickering was there in the party prior to the elections, senior party leaders had ignored them and on some occasions even had given evasive replies that differences were bound to be there in every political party.

But the election results, especially in Haveri and Dharwad districts, have indicated that the loss of Congress candidates in the elections had more to do with internal differences than the BJP wave. By the time senior leaders realised the enormity of the situation, it was too late, a senior Congress leader said.

“Now it is time for senior leaders to revamp the system of identifying leaders and activists in the party.

It is not just enough if only first rung leaders are recognised and given responsibilities. The second rung leaders must be taken into confidence and should be involved in party building activities,” he said.

He said there was a need to assure them that they would be rewarded with responsibilities at the appropriate time.

According to another Congress leader, probably the party would have won another seat in the district if the party leadership had convinced rebel candidate Tavanappa Ashtagi to withdraw his candidature from Dharwad constituency. The former MLA Vinay Kulkarni lost to newcomer Seema Masuti of BJP in Dharwad constituency by a margin of 723 votes. The rebel candidate Tavanappa had polled 6,113 votes in the constituency.

A senior Congress leader from Haveri said in the district too there were chances of party candidates winning had the senior leaders sorted out the differences among local leaders at the initial stages.

“If that had happened, probably the party would have won in three more constituencies in the district. Unfortunately, the local leaders were left to quarrel among themselves, which in turn benefited the BJP candidates,” he said.

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