The 'Once bitten, Twice shy' adage is probably absent in Maharashtra Congress's dictionary. The Congress despite a humiliating drubbing in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls where only a defected Shiv Sena rebel Suresh Dhanorkar could manage to win has barely learnt any lessons in introspection. The party has convened only two-day meeting to take stock of the losses in the state. This means one district gets only half an hour and broadly one assembly segment only five minutes for review. Several Congress leaders have termed it a farce saying this system lacks seriousness.
Starting Friday the State Committee will gather to reflect on losses in Vidarbha and Konkan region. The remaining regions namely Marathwada, North Maharashtra will be reviewed on Saturday. Western Maharashtra and Mumbai will be reviewed next week. However, what leaders are upset about is the hushed manner in which the party unit is treating the all-important exercise of reflection after such a serious debacle.
" One assembly segment comprises of approximately 300 booths. If one assembly gets five minutes for review then how can you do justice to the process. The party seems non-serious about the whole process," said a senior leader anonymously expressing his discontentment.
Some who are the devil's advocates within the party are mindful of reasons for the debacle. "Lack of synergy, co-ordination between party units, booth level mismanagement and abject failure in taking the manifesto programs like 'Nyay' to the populace cost the party dear," said a former minister and member of the state executive.
All this is happening when the state assembly elections are due in four months only. Congress party's principal ally NCP also faced a similar drubbing in the state, however while Congress won on one seat, ally NCP won on 4 in the state. Common sense would have dictated better relations with your ally especially when your ship is sinking. But it seems that next concern weighing largely on Congress's mind is how not to concede the ' big brother' role in seat sharing in the state with NCP.
" Our meeting over the weekend will seek feedback on why we lost in 24 Lok Sabha seats. It will also monitor the party men's pulse on the terms on which seat sharing with ally NCP should take place for the assembly elections," said Ashok Chavan, Congress state president.
Speedy Introspection
- 30 minutes for poll review of district
- 5 minutes for review of assembly segment
