The voting has been concluded for the election to the five state assemblies, which went to the polls. The results are anxiously awaited. The Exit Polls indicated that the Congress is likely to receive a drubbing almost everywhere. The Exit Polls only indicate the likely results. They are subject to the normal margin of error. Notwithstanding this limitation of the Exit Polls they indicate a trend. The Congress appears to be completely demoralized. In the last phase of the elections, the Congress leaders almost abandoned the election campaign for Delhi Assembly. Mrs. Sheila Dixit virtually fought all alone. Yesterday, the Congress spokespersons were conspicuous by their absence in the discussions on the Exit Polls. If this is the demoralization that the Exit Polls give to the Congress Party, I wonder what would happen when the actual results come in.
There is never a last day in the calendar of politics. It is an ongoing calendar. You never lose unless you stop trying. The Congress has stopped trying. This is precisely true for Delhi elections that were abandoned by its central leadership. The mess on the economic front that the Central government created, serious allegations of corruption, a policy paralysis and a non-inspirational leadership has demoralized the Congress cadres. Unless the Congress party responds to this reality, it will never find the correct answers. The relevance of charisma of a dynasty is never a long term answer in politics. When the political parties become a crowd around a family, the strength of the party becomes synonymous with the capacity of that family. The party itself has become a dynastic party. If the dynasty cannot deliver, the party itself fails.
I am only waiting to see, how the Congress Party reacts to the results of the Polls on December 8, 2013. Observing this Party closely, I have no doubt that they will not ask the right questions. Unless they ask the right questions, they will not get the right answers. I will not be surprised, considering the traditional thinking of the Congress, if their solution to the problem is “if one member of the family fails, let us try another”.