Marred with deminishing power, will Congress stay intact for Punjab & Himachal assembly polls?

New Delhi: The results of the recent local body polls in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh where Assembly elections will be held next year do not bode well for the Congress, as it is likely to intensify factional fights in the state units and send warning signals about the electoral outcome.

In Punjab where elections are likely to be held in February, Congress won just 393 wards out of 1997 that went to polls, down from 1,432 it won five years ago while the ruling AAP increased its wards from 69 to 954. Also a worrying signal for the Congress was the BJP increasing its wards from 49 to 172.

Congress harps on history to see a silver line as ruling parties which one majority of the wards just before elections in Punjab have always lost as one saw in 2015 (Akali Dal) and 2021 (Congress). In 2021, Congress had won almost 71 per cent of the wards but in the Assembly elections it was reduced to 18 out of 117.

The party, which is the main Opposition though a diminished one in electoral numbers, also points to the AAP winning less than half of the wards despite being in power and claiming to be popular among people and winning bypolls even wresting Congress sitting seats in the past.

However, factional fights in Punjab Congress have intensified with leaders seeking a bigger stake have been at each other’s throat. At a meeting with top Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, leaders sought to interpret results to their advantage.

While Charanjit Singh Channi, who was thrusted to limelight months before the 2022 Assembly polls by removing Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister, highlighted how wards in Gidderbaha where Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring holds a sway were lost while highlighting that the party won impressively in his area.

Warring’s counter that AAP misused administration to win the local polls met with objections from Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa who asked how Congress won in some other areas. Leader of Opposition in Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa, who left the meeting midway due to preoccupations, was also unhappy with the Warring’s leadership.

While the Congress leadership has ruled out a change in leadership, some point to the recent developments in Kerala and Karnataka to claim that a change is in the offing. Congress does not want to repeat the mistakes it made in 2022 and would explore the possibilities of the return of Amarinder Singh, who is reportedly unhappy with the BJP.

In Himachal Pradesh, BJP won three of the four Municipal Corporations, snatching two from the Congress, putting Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu on the backfoot with elections likely to be held in November next year.

His inner-party rivals are sharpening their arsenal, as they put the blame on the defeat at his doorsteps, even as he claimed that the Congress-supported candidates have performed well in municipal councils and ‘nagar parishads’ where elections were not held on party symbols. He claimed Congress won 29 of the 51 urban local bodies, including the four corporations.

Sukhu’s detractors accuse him of not taking other leaders into confidence in governance matters. Senior Himachal Minister Vikramaditya Singh said an analysis is required to determine why candidates and the organisational machinery were unable to secure victory though they put up a strong fight. A thorough review of the situation will be undertaken, he said.