Five and half years ago, it was a historic occasion for the Congress party in Bhopal, a few months before it formed the government in Madhya Pradesh (MP) in December 2018.
Braving the May heat and flanked by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress veteran Kamal Nath arrived in the state capital and took six hours in an open truck to reach the committee office of the party as he assumed charge, being appointed as the state unit president of the grand old party.
With a smile on his face, sitting next to the Nath-Scindia duo was Digvijaya Singh, who was understood to have tilted the balance in favour of Nath.
The campaign committee in charge, Scindia, also drew large cheers from party workers during his speech, but he did not look happy at all.
What happened 22 months after, we all know.
With 22 supporting MLAs, the 'Maharaj' crossed over to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), toppling the 18-month-long Kamal Nath government in MP.
Much water has flowed down in the Narmada ever since.
The Role of Different Congress Leaders in the Campaign
After the polling that took place on 17 November, as the fate of 230 candidates in MP remains sealed in electronic voting machines, the Congress hopes to form the government again in MP.
Pitched against a faction-ridden BJP, the Congress – with relatively less manpower and resources at hand – has been able to manage a good election campaign, given all the work that the party has put in to meet organisational challenges.
In the run-up to the election, the party’s campaign revolved around chief ministerial candidate Kamal Nath. The 77-year-old held 114 rallies. His long time associate Digvijaya Singh mostly worked backstage, mobilising and uniting the party.
Barring the two, there was hardly any third leader in the state unit. Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka merely addressed meetings and rallies.
Both of them spent about a week in the state before the elections, holding almost 10 rallies and the road shows each. Prior to this, the Congress also took out a Jan Akrosh Yatra in response to the Jan Ashirwad Yatra of the BJP.
Then too, there was a stark contrast between the glittering four-wheelers of the BJP, carrying its party leaders, compared to whatever was being used by the Congress.
“In fact, this was all. This is all what we could do”, said a senior functionary of the party, which had not been in power in the state before 2018 for eighteen and a half years prior.
“However”, he added, “while there was no dearth of manpower, we did have limited resources as compared to the BJP.”
Organisational Capability and Media Campaign
Unlike the BJP’s blitzkrieg with respect to campaigns within the mainstream media of MP, the Congress choose a different strategy, the one adopted by Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi.
It focused on social media and digital media platforms.
We have no other alternative as the regional newspapers and regional TV channels were hardly carrying anything of ours, even our press conferences, said a Congress leader.
“There were many issues raised by us and they were of immense importance for the people but the media in the state seems to have ignored them”, he said adding, "The majority of the media is under the control of the government."
However, the Congress did turn to mainstream media after the model code of conduct came into force and large Congress ads were seen on the front pages of the popular Hindi dailies.
From the BJP side, Prime Minister Modi addressed as many as 15 public meetings.
Besides him, BJP stalwarts including Home Minister Amit Shah, national party president JP Nadda along with chief ministers, deputy chief ministers, and ministers from different BJP-ruled states also campaigned in MP. As did the regional satraps like Jyotiraditya Scindia.
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan alone addressed 160 meetings.
"If you compare their organisational capability to ours," said a Congress leader, "We are very much behind."
"But we managed well and our weakness became our strength. As we do not have many leaders, there was hardly any bickering within the Congress unlike the BJP, where everybody seems to be fighting and most of them are against CM Shivraj," he added.
“The janata (people) fought for us making the election a contest where its the them versus the BJP”, he concluded smilingly.
Finally, a BJP leader made an interesting remark summing up the scene in MP, “It’s not that the Congress has fared well in the hustings. All the negatives linked with the BJP including the infighting and anti-incumbency went in favour of the Congress. But they (Congress leaders) were not able to exploit it to the hilt.”
If the Congress party does come to power, it may want to put its house in order and build an organisation infused of fresh blood in the form of a second rung of leadership.
Or will it continue its ad hoc approach? For now, we wait for 3 December.
(The author is a senior journalist based in Madhya Pradesh. This is an opinion article and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)