THE Congress party has received a tight slap on its face by way of elections to 28 seats in Legislative Council in four States -- Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. Except one seat in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, the party has lost every seat it contested (though in Uttar Pradesh it had chosen not to field its candidates in any seat). In Karnataka, where it is a ruling party, Congress party lost all the four seats to the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Janata Dal (Secular).

 

In this latest referendum, thus, the Congress party has been delivered a tight slap on its face by elite voters -- in an election in which voting took place with paper ballot and not the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). In one single shot, the party’s much-hyped accusation of ‘Vote Chori’ (Vote Theft) just went bust. How will the Congress leadership explain this latest development ? What justification will it offer to the people for its massive failure ? How will it save its face from this massive blot across four States ? Factually, the party’s leadership is only being uselessly cantankerous on the issue. It has been trying to malign the image of India’s democracy by stressing that the Narendra Modi Government wins elections only by manipulating the EVMs as well as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Rolls. It has been insisting that if elections were to be held with paper ballots, the BJP will lose all elections.

 

The Government, the Election Commission of India another agencies have put before the nation the entire situation on the basis of facts to state that no manipulation ever takes place in the manner the Congress party alleges. Every fact, every detail, every nuance has been presented to the nation not once but several times. The Election Commission also dared any political party to prove even once that the EVMs could be hacked, and no political party stepped forward to do that. Yet, the Congress party -- aided occasionally by other Opposition parties -- always insists that the BJP often wins only by manipulating EVMs and other official processes such as SIR. Factually, every constituent party in the INDI bloc does not agree with the Congress party on this count. National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mr. Omar Abdullah also has debunked the Congress theory on several occasions. Congress party’s own leader in Keralam, Mr. Ramesh Chennithala, is on record stating that the process of SIR helped in elimination of fake names from voters’ lists -- that led to the party’s good showing in legislative elections. Despite this, the Congress party refuses to see sense and rectify its conduct. To such a party of obstinate leaders, the Legislative Council elections to 28 seats in four States -- conducted with paper ballot -- is a tight slap on the face. In fact, such a tight slap was delivered to it in local elections in some North-East constituencies a few days ago where the party’s performance in local polls was just dismal (where the elections were conducted with paper ballots). At that time, too, the Congress leadership had continued its arrogant and senseless accusation against the EVMs. Now also, instead of learning right lessons from the development, the Congress leadership has insisted that the people have passed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and has asked him to introspect.

 

The reference was the loss of the BJP candidates in Varanasi which in Mr Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency. In fact, the loss of the BJP candidates -- anywhere -- shows how transparent the election system is. This should be good enough for the Congress party to learn a right lesson and rec tify its own thought and action. Instead of doing that, its leaders are acting like persons who have lost their sense of proportion and balance, arguing churlishly -- like street urchins fighting over lost marbles. These Legislative Council elections have shown that the Congress has lost one more battle (even with paper ballots). If its leaders are sensible people, they will feel hurt with this tight slap on their faces.