DC Edit | To fight BJP, win elections, Cong. must get act together

The latest is the suggestion to set up an election management committee which will be responsible for all aspects of fighting polls — from ticket distribution to election campaign management to deciding where and how alliances can be made. The party has at present a slew of panels such as manifesto committee, screening committee, central election committee and alliance committee with little coordination and often with overlapping roles. It may be remembered that there has been criticism against the party leadership for torpedoing its own interests in the Haryana Assembly election while it was caught napping when the saffron alliance was making steady progress in propitiating the voters even while ensuring that the voters list had all the names from its side in Maharashtra.

The Congress had cut a sorry figure levelling unsubstantiated allegations against the ECI after the Haryana and Maharashtra elections. While it alleged irregularities in the counting process in Haryana, it raised questions about the last hour rush and increased in the number of votes in a short span of time. The allegations were serious but the party has not yet come up with convincing evidence to put the poll body under the cloud of suspicion. On the contrary, it lent credence to its critics who equate the Congress to a bad workman who blames his tools.

The party had earlier this month set up an eight-member Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts, or Eagle, to “monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India”. The body was supposed to keep a bird’s eye view on the doings of the Election Commission of India, which the party believes plays a partisan role. A centralised unit with a command and control system which can take dynamic decisions based on the feedback from within the party and from outside could do well for the party.

While setting up new panels with responsibilities is one way of addressing the issues the party is facing on the poll front, it must realise that the formation of fancy committees is no match for its opponents whose political and election management mechanisms work 24/7 all 365 days a year. The BJP has a politics and has the organisational mechanism to reach it to its zestful cadre who communicate to the last man and try and bring him to its side. The Congress still has grassroots workers who almost take the party to the last lap with a winnable momentum but return disappointed as the leadership fails to carry the baton forward and touch the finishing line ahead of its opponents.

It’s time the Congress got its acts together politically and electorally. It can take a leaf or two out of its principal opponent’s books on organisational effectiveness. Chest-beating after every election defeat is not the best thing a political party can do; devising ways to win them is.