NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seems to have found a standard response to electoral losses. The party has suffered humiliating defeat first in Haryana and then in Maharashtra, negating the Lok Sabha gains. However, Rahul’s response to both the defeat has been identical and standard.
On Saturday, after loss in Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi wrote: “The results of Maharashtra are unexpected and we will analyse them in detail,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X Wednesday evening.”Thanks to all the voter brothers and sisters of the state for their support and to all the workers for their hard work,” he added.
For Jharkhand, where the JMM-led INDIA bloc retained power, he said, “Heartfelt thanks to the people of Jharkhand for giving a huge mandate to India. Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Chief Minister Hemant Soren ji, all the workers of Congress and JMM for this victory. This victory of the alliance in the state is a victory of the protection of water, forest and land along with the Constitution.”
The response comes as déjà vu as in October, Rahul Gandhi had used the same term after the Haryana defeat.
On October 9, a day after the results of Haryana and J&K assembly elections were declared, Rahul Gandhi had written a similar post on X: “We are analysing the unexpected results of Haryana.”
“We will inform the Election Commission about the complaints coming from many assembly constituencies. Heartfelt thanks to all the people of Haryana for their support and to our Babbar Sher workers for their tireless hard work. We will continue this fight for rights, for social and economic justice, for truth, and will keep raising your voice,” he wrote.
Despite being elected the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha just a few months ago, Gandhi’s party is back to square one after failing to make gains on the Lok Sabha boost.
In Maharashtra, where Congress got the biggest chunk of seat share in Maha Vikas Agadi, the party won 16 seats while the BJP got its record high 132 seats.
In Haryana, Congress was in direct contest with BJP and ended up with 37 seats. The BJP bagged 48 while the INLD won two seats.
In the aftermath, senior Congress leaders held a meeting with the Election Commission panel and submitted a memorandum. Congress leader Pawan Khera had mentioned that the party sent a list of 20 seats in Haryana where candidates had submitted written and verbal complaints over electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes.
If the Congress leadership analysed the poll loss remains unclear. Next year, the party will face two more litmus tests in Delhi and Bihar assembly elections. Will Congress be able to bounce back from recent setbacks, only the next election results will tell.
