Did Rahul Gandhi's dog take bite out of Congress's Assam prospects?

Congress leaders believe that Thursday's election result, its worst performance since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, will cast a shadow on the party's prospects in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Punjab and Uttarakhand unless the high command wields a magic wand and goes into deep introspection to rejuvenate the morale of leaders and cadres.

As results from Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu started pouring in, officer bearers at the AICC headquarters began searching for answers. While spokespersons on TV channels were shielding the top leadership, including president Sonia Gandhi and her son, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, some leaders said privately that they were aghast at the extent of mismanagement during these elections, particularly in Assam. The party not only lost the states of Kerala and Assam where it was in power, but its alliances in Tamil Nadu (with the DMK) and in West Bengal (with the Left parties), too, came a cropper.

Soon after the debacle in the Lok Sabha, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had offered to resign in 2014. "We never knew why his resignation was not accepted to pave way for a young face like Himanta Biswa Sarma to lead the party," said a senior leader. Sarma ultimately left the party and spearheaded the BJP's campaign in the state — also winning his own seat by a margin of 90,000 votes.

Giving details of what he called Rahul's casual approach, Sarma told reporters how he made several rounds of Delhi to meet the vice president. When he finally did get an "'audience"' to impress upon him the need for the change in leadership in Assam, he said he was told to complete his presentation in two minutes. Gogoi and party general secretary in-charge C P Joshi were also in the meeting and started fighting in Rahul's presence.

While Sarma was trying to complete his presentation, a little dog walked in and started eating biscuits from the plate meant for guests. "Rahul turned and started playing with dog instead of listening to us," he said. "After I came out, I told Gogoi that it would be impossible for me to continue in the Congress," Sarma added.

A fortnight later, when he was entering BJP president Amit Shah's residence, Rahul sent him an SMS asking him to meet him immediately. "I replied, it is too late now," Sarma said.

The results show that the Congress continues to be in the doldrums even two years after its decimation in the Lok Sabha elections. Party leaders admit that Rahul has proved to be a non-starter. "For the past two years, we have been hearing of changes coming in. The leadership did not even call an AICC session to debate the Antony committee report that deliberated the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections," a senior leader told dna. He said the time had come for Sonia Gandhi to rework strategy for the crucial assembly election in Uttar Pradesh in less than a year.