Basking in the glory of the emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha Elections, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office-bearers will convene at the party’s headquarters on June 20 (Thursday) for a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis.
The Congress could congratulate itself for tiding over heavy odds to post an excellent showing at the hustings, losing only two of the 15 seats it won in the 2019 polls to the CPI(M) (Alathur) and BJP (Thrissur).
A depleted election war chest and organisational dysfunction at the booth level had plagued the Congress’s campaign. Moreover, the party risked the disadvantages of incumbency by fielding most of its sitting MPs for a second consecutive time in 2024,
The Congress could also feel rightfully smug that the CPIM) was licking its wounds after the latter’s electoral defeat at the hustings. The Opposition’s domination in 119 Assembly segments has put a spring in the Congress’s step.
The Congress’s campaign was generally a muted affair compared to the high-decibel campaigns spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the BJP and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for the CPI(M).
However, the party ran the gauntlet of challenges, gambling again on Rahul Gandhi’s charisma, “resentment” against the LDF government, and growing guardedness among minorities, chiefly Muslims, about BJP’s “Hindu majoritarian” push.
The gloom of being kept out of power in the State for two consecutive terms seemed a distant memory, at least for now.
However, trouble could be on the horizon. Congress votes had shifted to the BJP in the Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram LS constituencies, and the BJP had emerged as the party of choice in 11 Assembly segments.
Congress leader K. Muraleedharan had ominously attributed his loss in Thrissur to a tangible right-ward drift in Christian and upper-caste Hindu votes to BJP’s Suresh Gopi.
Mr. Muraleedharan’s loss incited a mutiny in the Congress in Thrissur. It rendered the party’s veteran political warhorse to virtual recluseness for at least a year.
A KPCC insider said reinvigorating booth committees would entail replacing “inactive” leaders, a move that risked factional feuding.
The Congress must sustain its political momentum to fight the by-elections in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency and Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly seats, putting it on a possible path to victory in the 2025 local body elections and beyond.
Published - June 19, 2024 08:23 pm IST
