New Delhi: The Sunday Guardian has reported that Congress President, Rahul Gandhi, is working up a grand plan to counter the BJP by starting a nation-wide agitation against the EVMs. He will be demanding returning to paper ballots. However, most of the senior Congressmen are not happy with the new strategy and fear a backlash.
Rahul Gandhi is also pondering to boycott the coming state elections as a protest against the EVMs. It is reported that he came up with the idea after Chairman of the Data Analytics Department of Congress, Praveen Chakravarty, submitted a report which said that EVMs were manipulated.
Intriguingly, Praveen Chakravarty is the same person who had given Rahul Gandhi inflated numbers about Congress wins few days before the votes were counted on 23 May. He predicted that Congress would win in 164 to 184 seats. Rahul Gandhi acting on this data had called up many leaders of Congress allies promising them Cabinet berths.
The report also says that even Sonia Gandhi is having doubts about her son’s strategy to take on the BJP and has asked her colleagues in the party for advice. Most of the senior leaders were against such a move by Rahul Gandhi and warned the UPA Chairperson that it will destroy the credibility of the party further.
The leaders are also of the opinion that if Congress party boycotts State elections, it would lead to regional parties taking over the space of Congress leading to a complete breakdown of the party’s infrastructure in the states.
The Congress had been criticizing the Central government for using EVMs and blamed it for electoral defeats of the grand old party. However, the party won in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh state elections last year. This had blunt their accusation against the EVMs among the people.
Senior Congress leaders realize that a nationwide non-cooperation against BJP to remove EVMs and install paper ballots could end up backfiring. But the Congress scion has made up his mind to take on the BJP over the issue. He believes that it could undermine the ruling party and bring up the prospects of the party.
Rahul Gandhi’s leadership at the helm of affairs of the Congress party has been a disaster over the years. He had failed to encourage his party workers nor was he able to strike up alliances that could have been an united opposition to the BJP power. Though, his leadership has failed miserably, the Congress senior leaders are still looking up to him to lead the party.
They know that without a Gandhi name the Congress will cease to be a united party.
