Five mistakes of Rahul Gandhi that led to Congress drubbing in Lok Sabha polls

The results show that Rahul Gandhi, who became the Congress chief in 2017, has not been able to galvanise the party to offer a strong counter against the BJP, which has handed the main opposition party its worst electoral outcomes.

The results show that Rahul Gandhi, who became the Congress chief in 2017, has not been able to galvanise the party to offer a strong counter against the BJP, which has handed the main opposition party its worst electoral outcomes. (File Photo/ Getty)

NEW DELHI: Murmurs have already started within the Congress over taking responsibility for the poor performance of the party across the country, with some of its leaders already sending in their resignations. Rahul Gandhi is also likely to offer his resignation during a meeting of the Congress Working Committee slated on Saturday. There were reports of Rahul Gandhi having offered to resign on Thursday, after the results, but the Congress denied those. There have already been voices within to introspect on why the party failed to reach out to the people. The Congress has won 52 seats in the elections, just eight more than the 44 it won in 2014. Rahul Gandhi was a prominent face in both the elections. The party won a single seat (Rae Bareli) in Uttar Pradesh, but Rahul Gandhi himself failed to retain his family bastion of Amethi in India's biggest state. The loss is likely to have implications not just on Congress' revival plans in Uttar Pradesh, but also on his own political standing as a leader. He won from Kerala's Wayanad. The results show that Rahul Gandhi, who became the Congress chief in 2017, has not been able to galvanise the party to offer a strong counter against the BJP, which has handed the main opposition party its worst electoral outcomes. Here are five mistakes that Rahul Gandhi these Lok Sabha polls Rahul's campaign revolved around PM Modi While the BJP presented Modi as its brand for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress' poll campaign revolved around him and made the prime minister a focal point for the people. Throughout the electioneering, Modi continued to set the agenda and the Congress president could only follow and react to it. Also, the voters did not buy Gandhi's claim of dismantling Modi's image for alleged corruption in Rafale deal and his 'chowkidar chor hai' slogan. However, they put their faith in the 'main bhi chowkidar' campaign launched by Modi. Rahul, Priyanka failed to become brands Both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi failed to connect with voters in the way that Modi did. They failed to become brands. Out of the 116 Lok Sabha constituencies where Gandhi campaigned, the Congress could win only 17 while the BJP managed 92. Also, the use of Priyanka on the campaign trail did not galvanise Congress votes as expected. Priyanka Gandhi, who was appointed AICC general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh (east) in January, did manage to create a buzz during the Lok Sabha polls, but failed to lift the grand old party from the abyss of political irrelevance in the state. Priyanka campaigned in 44 seats, out of which the BJP won 38 and the Congres could bag only two. Alliance arithmetic went wrong The Congress entered into elections 2019 with alliances in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, but could only win three seats in these states. The alliance arithmetic worked for the Congress only in Tamil Nadu. Also, the Congress delayed formation of an alliance in Bihar. Its poor electoral strategy has allowed the saffron party to become a dominant force in West Bengal and strengthen itself further in Karnataka. Lack of understanding, determination during seat sharing and choosing alliance partners The Congress chose to contest alone in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in order to strengthen its organisation, which never happened. The flip-flop over alliance with the AAP in the national capital confused its workers and later the voters. In Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi had said his party will cut into votes of the BJP to help the SP-BSP alliance defeat the BJP, which did not go down well with the party's traditional vote bank. Weak organisation While Rahul Gandhi kept attacking the BJP aggressively in the media but he failed to strengthen the organisation on the ground. In 2017, the Congress suffered a rout in Uttar Pradesh but no major changes were seen in the organisation structure. In Haryana, the party has no district president or block president for the last five years. The organisation structure is in shambles in Bihar too. In contrary to this, the BJP worked on organisation right from the booth level structure and reached out to the common man with its social welfare schemes. The Congress failed to communicate the benefits of its NYAY scheme to the end voter.