Lack of organisational strength and failure to have a counter narrative to the BJP’s Hindutva are mainly responsible for the Congress not able to wrest the Lok Sabha seats it lost to the BJP in three coastal constituencies long ago, according to observers.
In the 2024 elections, the BJP retained its Dakshina Kannada seat for the ninth consecutive term since 1991. It won the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru seat for the fifth term since 2004. There was a break in the 2012 byelection which was won by K. Jayaprakash Hegde of the Congress.
The saffron party won Uttara Kannada seat for seventh time since 1996. In 1999, the seat was won by Margaret Alva of the Congress.
A senior professor of Political Science at Mangalore University told The Hindu that the Congress leaders probably thought that countering the Hindutva narrative of the BJP is through the narrative of secularism. The Congress embracing the narrative of secularism may not work in its favour at this juncture as the BJP has taken its Hindutva narrative deep into the minds of people. Instead the grand old party can counter the BJP’s narrative by highlighting the welfare schemes and reforms it implemented in various sectors. It should keep this narrative alive throughout without highlighting them only during elections.
The professor said: “The question is not whether the Hindutva narrative of the BJP is right or wrong. On the part of the BJP it is right and the saffron party is doing its best to keep it alive in the minds of people by making use of all opportunities. It has paid dividend to the party. The Congress does not have such a sustained narrative of its own. The grand old party should learn to work with people if it wants to check BJP effectively.”
Lack of dedicated foot soldiers
Tejomaya, a senior leader of the party and a former vice-president of Dakshina Kannada Congress Committee, told The Hindu that the Congress lacks dedicated foot soldiers to work at the booth level like the BJP.
“The Congress has more leaders than ground-level workers,” Mr. Tejomaya, who is also a former Chairman of Mangaluru Urban Development Authority, said.
Mr. Tejomaya said that earlier getting trained at Congress Seva Dal and serving there was a must to get the active membership of the party. In addition, a person had to enrol 25 persons into the party before getting the membership. It used to help produce leaders. “Now all such discipline has been thrown to the wind and the leaders are directly selected from the high command,” he said, adding that the coastal belt also requires an able leadership to take all along.
Recalling the “Gandhi Nadige” camps organised by the party in the coastal belt decades ago, Mr. Tejomaya said that the camps did help the party in organising people, discuss burning issues and strengthen the party at the base.
Charter did not help Congress
Incidentally, the Congress announcing a separate charter for the development of coastal Karnataka ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections did not help the party much as it could win only three more Assembly seats in the belt.
Of the 19 Assembly seats in the belt, the BJP won 13 seats leaving six to the Congress. In the 2018 election, the BJP had won 16 seats, leaving three to the Congress. Later, it snatched one more seat (Yellapura in Uttara Kannada) from the Congress in the 2019 by-election, increasing its tally to 17.
On the other hand, the BJP’s winning margin came down in all three Lok Sabha constituencies in 2024 when compared to 2019 election. The Congress could make little headway into the BJP’s vote share.
