Letters: Congress poll strategy

With reference to “The wrong message” (November 28), it is a bit difficult to understand whether Rahul Gandhi’s election speeches reflect his view of Indian economy, social reality and political policy or they are mere rhetoric. His vision is unclear because he rarely spells it out with conviction and his vocabulary isn’t empathetic. However, his poll strategy in Gujarat is aimed at achieving three beneficial but insubstantial outcomes for him. The party leadership has succeeded in making its followers forget about a possible defeat in Himachal Pradesh, the results for which are clubbed with those of Gujarat.

On the other hand, the party will boast about its comeback if it gets through in Gujarat. Further, Gandhi’s admirers have been led to believe that the party is giving a strong opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even though it has stitched hasty alliances with disgruntled elements on the latter’s terms — something it did not do in 2012. Also, its ardent followers are very hopeful of the Congress displacing the BJP although the organisation on the ground is weak and lacks a leader with mass appeal. Lastly, the party has hedged its bet by saying that even if the BJP wins, it will not get 150 seats (as targeted by the BJP president) or will get less seats than in 2012. It will thus claim moral victory if this happens. Whether Gandhi is clever in his Gujarat plan or proves to be too clever by half will be known on December 19.

Y G Chouksey   Pune

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