Mahesh Kejriwal
After the defeat of the Congress in the assembly election results of five states including UP, questions have started being raised on the leadership of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi. After slipping out of Congress-ruled Punjab, there is speculation about the future of the party. The BJP’s lead in four of the five states and AAP in one has added to the troubles of the Congress. After the initial trends on Thursday, there was silence in the Congress camp. After this, the tremors of Congress veterans in Punjab added to the uneasiness. The factionalism that has been going on for the last several months, especially in Punjab and Uttarakhand, finally brought the party to a halt.
From UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur to Goa, there was no ray of better performance. Particularly in UP and Punjab, the party appeared to be failing miserably. The election performance of the country’s oldest party is being discussed on social media. In Uttar Pradesh, despite Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi taking over the reins of the party in UP, the vote share of the Congress in the state was reduced to half. This time the party has failed to get three per cent votes in UP. This was the situation when the campaign of slogan Ladki Hoon Lad Sakhi Hai, led by Priyanka went on. And women were given 40 percent tickets in the elections.
In Punjab where the Congress was in power, the party’s vote share fell from 38.5 per cent in 2017 to 23.3 per cent in 2022. Apart from this, the party’s vote share has also declined due to the Congress, which emerged as the single largest party in 2017, slipping to the second position in Goa and Manipur. The vote share of the Congress in Manipur was 35.1 per cent in 2017, halved to 17 per cent in 2022. Simultaneously, it proved to be a loss for the coalition allies of the Congress. People in Punjab were battling unemployment and inflation for a long time and this time they were looking for an alternative. The result of which was the new party AAP.