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How a toxic poll campaign came back to bite Congress in MP
The Congress party in Madhya Pradesh suffered its worst performance in a decade in the recent assembly elections, with the BJP winning a majority.
This autumn was a time rich with promise for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh.
The state, the largest of the three provinces headed for assembly elections, appeared prime for a change. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been in the saddle for 18 of the last 20 years and suffered from internal factionalism in a state where it has powerful leaders in every region. There were allegations of corruption. And signs of anti-incumbency appeared to dog chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Most importantly, the Congress had just stormed to a historic victory in Karnataka, running a rooted, energetic campaign that managed to stitch a diverse social coalition and unite marginalised castes and communities, displacing an unpopular BJP government. The party believed that Madhya Pradesh, with its large constituents of farmers, Dalits and tribals, was there for the taking.
Inexplicably, however, former chief ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh chose a different tack, said Congress leaders aware of the details.
The two men who helmed the campaign in the state, turned away from running the kind of issues-based grassroots campaign that won the Congress the biggest victory in a generation, and poured their energies into an acerbic, negative pitch that spent precious campaign hours attacking senior BJP leaders, and even allies -- time that could have been used to fine-tune the party’s outreach on the ground.
On Sunday, the results were there for all to see.
The Congress slumped to its worst performance in a decade as the BJP soared to its highest-ever vote share. The BJP won 163 of the state’s 230 assembly seats, leaving behind the Congress a poor runner-up at 66.
As the dust settled on the shock loss on Monday, and central and state leaders rued fumbling the best chance to dethrone the BJP government in two decades, they zeroed on a key reason behind the drubbing -- a caustic campaign that spent too much time embroiled in controversy over shrill personal comments.
“The Congress announced multiple schemes, like those for women and free education for students, all of which could have benefitted us if we had just spoken about them. Instead, it seemed to us, that the focus of Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, who ran the show, was a negative campaign,” said a senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity.
ACERBIC, NEGATIVE, OVERCONFIDENT
That negativity was pervading the campaign became apparent early -- and within the party.
In September, as bungled candidate selection sparked protests across the state and the leadership was forced to walk back on some polarising decisions, workers began pouring into the party headquarters. But instead of listening to their grievances and uniting the campaign, Nath and Singh chose a more high-handed approach, said a second party leader.
“Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath were showing autocratic behaviour. Nath included his favourites in all the committees by ignoring the experienced one...He was scolding leaders by showing his survey reports, and Singh was scolding leaders by closing doors in the meetings being organised in the districts,” said this leader, who belongs to Mahakaushal, Nath’s home region.
“This upset the workers a lot because more than listening to their grievances , they were focusing on attacking us. The result is here in front of all,” added the leader.
Through the campaign, they spent more time hitting out senior BJP leaders even as feedback from the ground said better communication was needed to convince voters of the Congress’s manifesto promises.
On November 7, Singh said in Indore that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah had lost confidence in the state BJP. “The PM is campaigning as if he is the CM candidate” he said.
In a rally in Sagar on November 12, Nath attacked Chouhan and said he was an “actor” who would find work in cinema in Mumbai even after he was rendered jobless in Madhya Pradesh.
In December, Singh attacked Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who left the Congress in 2020, and called him a traitor. “Now we have no Scindia left. Now there is no traitor,” he said.
Nath alleged that Scindia took benefits from the erstwhile Congress government. “Whether he (Scindia) is black or yellow, I don’t have to answer that,” he told reporters.
Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also hit out at Scindia, calling him a traitor who betrayed people’s trust, and made disparaging personal remarks about his family legacy and height.
After the results, Scindia hit back. “Someone had made remarks about my height. The people of Gwalior-Malwa have shown how tall they are,” he said.
ALLIES NOT SPARED
Even allies -- constituents of the 28-party Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)-- weren’t spared.
Nath ignored requests by the CPI(M) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) for an alliance, acting dismissively. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, angered by the attitude as well as the denial of a seat-sharing arrangement, campaigned in Madhya Pradesh. “If the Congress continues to behave like this, who will trust them? If we fight with confusion in our minds against the BJP, then we won’t succeed,” he said on October 20.
Asked about these comments, a curt Nath continued undeterred. “Arre bhai, chhodo Akhilesh Vakhilesh (forget Akhilesh,” he told reporters, suggesting the SP chief was inconsequential.
The results showed that this caustic campaign had backfired.
In Chouhan’s home region of Bhopal-Narmadapuram, the BJP won 26 seats and the Congress five.
In Nath’s home region of Mahakaushal, the party fell to 17 seats, with the BJP winning 21.
In Bundelkhand, the region that abuts Uttar Pradesh, the Congress won 7 and the BJP 22. SP candidates made up the difference between candidates of the two parties in five seats. This meant that if the SP had allied with the party finishing second, the Congress, the alliance would have won.
The damage was most stark in Gwalior-Chambal, Scindia’s home region that is traditionally a Congress stronghold. The Congress lost 10 seats to register 14 wins while the BJP rose from a paltry six seats to 17.
A third Congress leader said that Nath’s dismissive denial of tickets to INDIA members became a distracting sideshow. “All the SP was asking was four seats and the CPI(M) two. But Nath wasn’t even willing to give them these seats, saying the Congress doesn’t need them,” he said.
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CUT OFF FROM GROUND REALITIES
The focus on personal attacks and a negative campaign meant that the lessons learnt from Karnataka were forgotten. “There was time to replicate the Karnataka election model. There was an initiative to talk of 50% corruption, but unlike in Karnataka, we did not set a narrative on corruption. Even issues like price rise, unemployment and examination scams were not built on,” said a fourth party leader.
Within the party, this manifested in delayed responses, or a complete lack of communication. “There were repeated requests from the Congress candidate in Budhni, Vikram Mastal, contesting against Chouhan, for an election meeting or roadshow by Nath. There was no response and party workers began asking if we even wanted to beat Chouhan who eventually won with a huge margin of over a lakh,” said a fifth leader.
The leader added that the central leadership then made an attempt to bring in political strategist Sunil Kanugolu who had helped the Karnataka Congress campaign. But Nath blocked him, preferring to rely on his own surveyors. Kanugolu was eventually was deputed to Telangana, where the Congress managed to defeat the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi in what was the only bright spot for the party on Sunday.
“Sunil Kanugolu helped the Congress design a powerful campaign in Karnataka and Telangana, but Nath had an argument with him and he was asked to go. Nath had his own surveyors but either they didn’t read the situation correctly, or didn’t communicate well,” the fifth leader said.
The leaders quoted above said that Nath and Singh were so certain of the political dividends of their acerbic approach that the party didn’t react to issues raised by the BJP, or concerns from the ground.
Instead, they stuck to making personal attacks, rewarding their own associates. Nath got his son, Chhindwara MP Nakul Nath, to play a key role in deciding the tickets from the district. Singh ensured tickets for three of his family members, of whom two lost. “This did not go down well with the rank and file of the Congress. It sent out a message that it was true that they were not working for the party but to establish their relatives,” said the third leader.
Other leaders complained that their insularity from local workers meant that the leadership didn’t understand that the shrill pitch was not assuring voters -- especially communities that had long been Congress backers but chose to support the BJP this time. “Even in the middle of the campaign, one was asked to drop messages with their close associates and there was no telling if there would be a response. Most times, there was none,” the fourth leader said.
On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh gave them a response.
