Soon after the Gujarat results announced, the Congress tried to play down the aftereffects of party president Sonia Gandhi’s changing the tide of Gujarat poll campaign by calling state chief minister Narendra Modi a “merchant of death”. While Modi cashed in on her statement by terming it as against the “Gujarati pride” and converted into votes, after the announcement of results, a section of Congress leaders termed it as a “non-issue”. However, Congress’s “secular allies” like the Left wanted more from the party against the Modi regime and the BJP’s “communal” politics.
Political observers also say that Sonia Gandhi’s efforts to draw a clear line of difference between the “communal” BJP and the “secular Congress” backfired. The key players of the Congress in the state Union minister Shanker Singh Vaghela and party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha Madhusudan Mistry also conceded that Modi succeeded in playing the communal card by making an issue out of the Sonia Gandhi’s statement.
On the other hand Congress leaders in Delhi had other views. “The truth has to be told. We have to fight it upfront. Democracy is not about winning or losing a state election. Modi is something that Congress abhors,” Congress leader and Union minister Kapil Sibal said.
The CPI(M) politburo in a statement said that the results showed that the impact of communal politics is deep. “What is required is a determined and uncompromising struggle against the communal ideology of Hindutva and the capacity to launch sustained struggles of all sections of the people who suffered from the rightwing economic policies of the Modi government,? the politburo added. The CPI, on the other hand, was more critical of the Congress.
“Congress should realise that secularism alone is not enough and it should do some serious introspection over its policies particularly on the economic front,? CPI national secretary D Raja said.