Candidates to campaign, Congress blundered

Having already decided its line-up from those who would occupy key ministries to officers who would hold top posts, the Congress today kept delaying accepting the inevitable till the last. Even as national and regional channels started announcing a majority for the Akali-BJP government, Sangrur MP Vijay Inder Singla, speaking to reporters on the lawns of Congress chief ministerial candidate Captain Amarinder Singh's residence, insisted: "The final word has yet to come in."

Amarinder finally ventured out after it was clear that the SAD-BJP government had returned to power, saying that as one holding command of the Congress in Punjab, he solely took the blame for the defeat.

"We would have put Punjab on the way to recovery by dealing with unemployment, primary health and education, stagnant agriculture and declining industry. Hope Akalis offer better governance this time. We have good numbers and will offer formidable opposition to them and watch the interests of the state," he went on to add.
Amarinder, however, refused to see it as a mandate in favour of the Akalis. "Our vote share has not only gone up but it is also more than the Akalis (40.11 per cent)," he pointed out.

While the Punjab Congress chief refused to pinpoint the reasons for the party's loss, he conceded that rebels, swing of Dalit votes towards the BSP, the BJP's better-than-expected performance and the loss of its senior leaders all cost it dear. A look at why the Congress lost:

Macro not micro management

Instead of constituency-wise dynamics, the Congress relied on macro management. Ticket distribution itself was marred by bitter infighting, with resentment over the number of seats going to relatives. Incidentally, Amarinder's son Raninder Singh as well as Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal's son-in-law Vikram Bajwa lost.

The Dera factor

The Congress bent over backwards to get the Dera Sacha Sauda vote. However, while the Dera itself refused to endorse any particular party, the Congress ended up alienating the radical Sikhs. Amarinder, however, insisted this didn't hurt the party. "The Dera voted for us," he said, adding: "The Left votes went to the alliance forged by Manpreet (Badal), but we never expected the PPP (People's Party of Punjab) to eat into our votes."

Rebels

While Amarinder had sought to dismiss the scramble for tickets as partymen sensing a Congress win, the rebels denied tickets affected the party's performance in over a dozen seats. The PPCC chief conceded their effect on just three — Sujanpur, Pathankot and Amritsar East.

Reactive poll campaign

The Congress failed to offer a proactive alternative to the Akalis' development propaganda, relying too much on ads instead. What it offered instead was sops, and the Akalis bettered them on that by offering some more in their manifesto, released after the Congress's.

Amarinder as CM candidate

The Congress defied tradition of never announcing a Congress candidate before results by naming Amarinder. However, the announcement that came just a week before voting came too late and only upped the ante in the war of succession between rival factions.

Inaccessibility

With Amarinder once again choosing to function through a core hand-picked team comprising those better at poll jargon and lobbying than those perceived to be in touch with grass-root reality, murmurs of inaccessibilty kept getting louder.

PPP, BSP factor

With over 5 per cent vote share, the fledgling third front put up by Badal family rebel Manpreet Badal seems to have dented the Congress vote bank. Amarinder dismissed this as well as the votes won by the Left as a decisive factor. "The BSP of course gained ground," he said.