New Delhi, March 10: As trends show that the BJP is set to regain all the four states it was ruling and the Congress is on the verge of losing Punjab, the spotlight now shifts to leadership and the team which was operating behind the scenes, whether for Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Rahul Gandhi’s team of K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and the state in-charges could not deliver the states which went for polls. In Uttarakhand, which had the convention of changing government every five years, the Congress failed to make a repeat. In the beginning state in-charge Devendra Yadav could not manage the factions and later sent senior leaders but precious time was lost in all this. The party appeared to be divided into two sub-parties, who were unwilling to work in tandem.
In Goa the trio of State in-charges — Dinesh Gundu Rao, Girish Chodankar (the state President) and Digambar Kamat (the former Chief Minister) ignored the state leaders like Luizinho Falerio, who left to join Trinamool and leaders like Francisco Sardinha were sidelined and even P. Chidambaram, who was senior observer could not choose the right candidates.
In Punjab, the operation done by Rahul and Priyanka did not deliver the desired results and the last minute gamble played by the party in making Charanjit Singh Channi, a Scheduled Caste Chief Minister did not pay well, and the AAP is heading towards landslide victory. Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary have only aggravated the situation in the party by ignoring party MPs during this campaign, which seems to have backfired.
Similarly, Rahul Gandhi team comprising Alankar Sawai, K. Raju, Byju and Kaushal Vidhyarthi along with the political advisors have failed in consecutive elections. The old timers have been ignored. Similarly Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s reliance on Sandeep Singh, Ajay Kumar Lallu and Mona Mishra has failed to deliver.