With 80 seats in a 182 seat Gujarat assembly, Congress has found its voice back. In a Press Conference post-election results, Congress leader Surjewala said ‘BJP has (probably won) by whisker’ and that ‘Congress Party has fallen short of just half a dozen numbers. We believe that a party that had 41 MLAs and support of 43 Legislators, we have done exceedingly well and we are grateful to the people for that’
The gains by Congress were significant enough to warrant TimeOfIndia quoting that “Congress 2.0, driven by a renewed Rahul Gandhi may have fallen short of dethroning BJP but has made significant gains. It has succeeded in capturing the rural narrative, gaining a significant lead over BJP largely in agrarian Saurashtra and pockets of north Gujarat”
Hindustan Times is carrying a headline ‘Make no mistake, the contest in PM Modi’s home state was really close’ while Indian Express called the depilated organization in the state to be one of the treasons for missing the opportunity. The newspaper writes ‘Congress is suffering from the lack of a party structure at the state level. It did admirably well in the last three months of the campaign, but the standard deficits of the Congress are still in play.’
While everyone is wiser in the hindsight, we would like to congratulate effective campaign management by Randeep Singh Surjewala and Rajeev Satav among others. In the beginning of campaign congress was all but written off. In the uphill task to take on the Modi-Shah Goliath by Conress’s david. This country needs a stronger opposition and now Rahul Gandhi seems to be getting ready for it.
