The Hindu : Shimla meet may spell out Cong. strategy against BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 07, 2003

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National

Shimla meet may spell out Cong. strategy against BJP

By Javed M. Ansari

SHIMLA JULY 6. The three-day Congress `Manthan Shivir' beginning here tomorrow will come out with a `Shimla sankalp' or declaration, which is likely to define in clear terms the party's position on important issues. The whole exercise has been divided into five sub-groups, each dealing with a different subject — political challenges, rural transformation, social empowerment, people-oriented governance and election challenges and organisational reforms.

However, the question foremost on everybody's mind will be to find an answer to the challenge posed by the BJP.

There is considerable concern amongst the Congress poll strategists about the growth and ascendancy of the BJP in national politics. The search will be for a calibrated political strategy that will help the party win back power at the Centre.

The conclave is likely to devote considerable time discussing the BJP's success in emerging as the largest party in Parliament in three successive elections, and its ability to form anti-Congress alliances at the national level. The party is expected to take a hard look at the BJP's growth and the ideological support it enjoys in different sections of society and its methods of political mobilisation. The party, however, has its task cut out as it gears itself to face the electoral challenges.

It is in power in 16 States. Of the 525 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress is a major contender in only 300 seats. It remains a peripheral player in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — States that account for nearly 200 Lok Sabha seats.

The highest number it has ever won in West Bengal was 16 in 1984. In Bihar and U.P., the party has just not been able to recover from the 1989 debacle. In Bihar it won four seats in 1989, one in 1991, two in 1996, and one in 1998. It improved marginally in 1999, by winning three seats with more than a little help from Laloo Prasad Yadav. In a belated admission of ground realities, the party has now begun to talk about the possibility of forging electoral alliances with like-minded parties.

At Pachmarhi five years ago, the party grudgingly accepted the possibility of forging electoral alliances. However, it stressed that "coalitions will be considered only when absolutely necessary''.

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