THE result of the Tura parliamentary bye-election is a decisive one for the Nationalist Peoples’ Party (NPP) candidate Conrad Sangma. He surpassed even his own father the legendary PA Sangma in terms of votes polled. Conrad won over his rival from the Congress by over 1.92 lakh votes. This victory for the NPP can also be interpreted as a mandate against the Congress. Many factors led to the defeat of Congress candidate Dikkanchi D Shira. Firstly, she is the sitting MLA of Mahendraganj constituency. In a political scenario where the debate on the one-man, one post issue is alive, it is suicidal to go against public opinion. Secondly, the Congress campaign was fixated on the BJP instead of laying out its development action plan for Garo Hills. There was no point attacking the BJP upfront since it did not put up a candidate. This only revealed the nervousness of the Congress at the growing clout of the BJP in neighbouring Assam. This fact is not lost on the shrewd Mukul Sangma, whose beta-noire Himanta Biswa Sarma is leading the charge for the BJP in Assam. Negative campaigns tend to create confusion in the mind of the voters.
Even the posters put up by the Congress were unimaginative. A positive campaign that is free of rancour creates positive vibes and does more to pull votes than a constant reviling of the opponent. The Congress Party in Meghalaya is tried and tested; the BJP is not. It is a fact that the BJP pulled all the stops to campaign for the NPP candidate. Humans by nature crave for change, hoping it will be for the better. Voters also know there is merit in voting the NPP candidate since the Party is a constituent of the Narendra Modi led NDA government which is ruling the country today. There are better chances of getting cooperation from a friendly government than one in opposition. That is basic political logic. As a Party, the Congress holds no promise. Its Vice President, Rahul Gandhi does not inspire confidence. Sonia Gandhi the AICC President is unable to counter the allegations of corruption against her family. Over and above there is the Agusta Westland helicopter scam which allegedly involved the UPA Government and Sonia Gandhi personally which raised the political temperature at a time when people were making decisions about who to vote for. Since 2014 when the Congress party ended up winning only 44 seats in the 543 member house, it has adopted an attack mode against the BJP. The phrases ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ framed against Narendra Modi had become clichéd and tiresome. It showed up the Congress’s inability to reinvent itself. All it did to draw attention to itself is by disrupting the Parliament sessions. Redundancy has set into the party. If the Congress does not seriously introspect and does nothing to reinvent itself soon it will perish. Perhaps it is the burden of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that is wearing the Party down!