"It is a challenge but Congress will win hearts and make a comeback": Sushmita Dev

Indian National Congress, is fighting an existential crisis in the country. The high-command is burning its midnight oil to come out with a way to revive the party’s electoral fortunes and rejuvenate its workers. While the Congress working committee is charting a national plan, Sushmita Dev and Cachar district Congress committee is introspecting its performances.

Sushmita Dev, a former member of parliament got defeated by BJP’s Rajdeep Roy by more than 80,000 votes. In a press conference held today in Silchar, Dev said she accepts full responsibility of the electoral defeat. “There is no denying that I could not connect with the voters on the ground. It is also true that the election results were an organisational failure for us and we need to revisit our grassroots strategy,” Dev said.

However, she added that the ground level workers must not be held responsible for the electoral defeat, “They did their bit and the workers are the only political capital that we have. To them I would like to say, no reason to get disheartened. It will be challenging but we will win back hearts and make a comeback,” said Dev.

The postmortem will go on for some time as Dev believes there is no one single reason that led to Congress’ defeat but there are multiple. As per her understanding, district, state and national introspection are necessary at all levels as each played a role in the electoral defeat.

Commenting about her own constituency she said that while she takes all the responsibilities of the defeat she alone cannot rejuvenate the party and win back trusts but the entire unit needs to go on the field to understand what went wrong. “I saw my father (late Santosh Mohan Dev) how he went to the field after facing an electoral defeat and then he made a comeback to win the elections. We need to communicate with the people on the ground, we will have to understand from them what went wrong and why they decided to vote against us and this needs a united effort,” asserted Dev.

Congress was napping all across the country while BJP and Amit Shah stitched one after another alliance. The party’s election machinery was unclear on its own stand when it comes to seat sharing with parties like AAP, the Mahagatbandhan (BSP and SP) in Uttar Pradesh, AIUDF in Assam. “As far as I understand the Congress way of functioning, the high-command leaves it for the state leadership to decide on things like alliances. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee should have informed Badaruddin Ajmal about its decision, keeping him and AIUDF at bay till the very end was not right,” she added. Dev clarified that she is not yet in a position to comment on if an alliance with AIUDF would have benefitted Congress.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on April 9, 2019, at an election rally in Guwahati mentioned that the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 will be scrapped if Congress is voted to power in 2019. The bill was supported by people in Barak Valley who voted Sushmita Dev as MP. When asked if the party’s stance on CAB played a role in her defeat, Dev reiterated that there is no single reason to blame for her defeat.

However, she added, “My stance on CAB was clear from day 1 and that is I am in support of the providing unconditional citizenship. Yes, I agree that I could not convey my stance to the voters and that is a failure in my part. But the state leadership needs to rethink its strategies as despite the firm stance on the CAB Congress lost seats in Bramhaputra Valley.”

The Mahila Congress President was of the opinion that media and people should now question newly elected MP from Silchar, Rajdeep Roy on his stance on the article 6A of Assam Accord. “We will see if Rajdeep Bangali (that is how JP Nadda announced Roy’s name confirming his candidature) take a stance going against the state leadership how I did for the citizenship amendment bill.”

The former member of parliament from Silchar said that Congress must focus on the upcoming Municipality elections and start working on it immediately. “More than four lakh people voted for us (Silchar Lok Sabha seat) and that is a huge number. We still have the trust of a lot of people and we should work on our election strategy which is a science and needs diligence and perseverance,” she added.

Later this month, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee will meet to discuss the factors resulted in the party’s defeat. Dev said that it likely after that meeting the party will have a clear idea of the way ahead.