The upcoming 2019 election will be a test of survival for the Congress as the grand old party is on the verge of losing its ground in the northeastern region. Once a bastion, Congress slowly lost power in 5 states which was under its rule. Even in Mizoram, which was its stronghold and an impossible area for other parties to gain power, the Congress lost to the Mizo National Front (MNF) in the recent state assembly election 2018. Even in Tripura the Congress was the main opposition to the ruling left government but after the state election in February 2018, the party failed to secure even a single seat.
The party’s constant losses in the elections in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have become a worrying sign. The party, which is the biggest opposition to the BJP in Lok Sabha, is barely being able to keep ground in the region. To save the party from dying out in the region, Congress President Rahul Gandhi kick started its election campaign from Assam.
Gandhi, while addressing the rally, attacked the BJP and the RSS for trying to impose their ideology in the region. “There is an attack on your history, your language and your way of life. Not only Assam, the RSS is attacking all the states of the northeast. The ideology of RSS has burnt every northeast state. It has burnt Arunachal, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland. They have not spared a single state, The Congress is going to stop this and save the history and culture of the northeast. We will give a befitting reply to BJP, Narendra Modi and Mohan Bhagwat” said Gandhi.
One of the key things which the congress is betting upon is reviving the special status category for Assam which the BJP Government removed after coming to power in 2016. Gandhi said, “They have taken away your special status, and from this stage itself I declare, the moment Congress comes back to power we will grant you special status.” Gandhi further promised to restore the North East Industrial Policy, which was scrapped by the BJP. He also promised to waive off the education loans of students from the northeast.
While addressing a rally in Arunachal Pradesh on 19th March Rahul Gandhi also promised to restore the special category status to Arunachal Pradesh and rest of the northeastern states and also claimed that the Congress would respect the indigenous identity, heritage and culture of the people. Gandhi took full opportunity to lambast the BJP and the RSS by saying that the duo is trying hard to impose its Hindutva identity upon the people of the region by bringing the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, which he assured that the Congress will scrap it if they are voted to power.
In Manipur the party currently holds two parliamentary seats from inner and outer Manipur and showed confidence in retaining those seats. Altogether nine people including the sitting MP, T Meinya Singh, are seeking party tickets from inner Manipur constituency and seven candidates are seeking tickets from the outer Manipur to contest the poll.
However, the state leadership of the Congress in Assam is having a tough time amongst themselves with regard to giving tickets its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Veteran Congress leader and two-time chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, expressed his dissatisfaction over the candidature of former bureaucrat and current Lok Sabha candidate from Tezpur, MGVK Bhanu and Sushanta Borgohain from Jorhat.
The cracks within the organisation is something that Congress needs to work on and work fast to be able to win the confidence of its party members and people ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. From the last Lok sabha election in 2014 to the 2019 elections, the Congress scaled up its campaign in an aggressive manner and is carrying out ground level work to attract voters to their side, similar to what the BJP is doing and had done during 2014 general elections which helped the party to win the Lok Sabha elections.
Will the Congress be able to win maximum seats from the northeast? Can Rahul Gandhi propel the party to its much needed victory and most importantly, will the people give their mandate in favour of the party? Can the Citizenship Bill issue help the Congress be an alternative to the BJP? We will have to wait and see as to how the Congress campaigns in the region before the country heads for elections on 11th April.