Chandigarh MC poll: Anti-incumbency worked, but not the way Congress saw it

It is an opportunity lost for the Congress as it faced the second successive defeat in the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) elections.

The party was banking heavily on the anti-incumbency factor to regain power, but it was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that could exploit it to its advantage and push the grand old party to the third spot in the MC poll race.

The defeat follows the party’s loss in the 2019 Lok Sabha election to the BJP.

The Congress won on eight seats and was runner-up on 12 seats. In a close race, which in many wards went to the wire, the party lost by narrow margins, for instance in ward number 2, it lost by 11 votes and in ward number 3, by 90 votes.

It’s voting percentage at 29.79% was highest, though it, was spread out across the wards, while AAP’s votes were more concentrated in particular wards. AAP’s eight candidate poll deposit got forfeited, only 2 faced such dismal performance. Congress was runner up on 12 seats, against AAP’s five.

UNDERESTIMATING RIVALS

The party underestimated the AAP’s prospects in the elections and focussed its attack primarily on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Former MP and national treasurer, Congress, Pawan Kumar Bansal said, “Our campaign was mainly addressed at the BJP. The AAP model in Delhi has failed. We didn’t highlight it enough and only addressed it in the passing reference. There is a vast gap between their promises and actual deeds.”

CAMPAIGN LAGGED BEHIND AAP, BJP

The party’s campaign started slow and gained momentum only near the end of the campaign period. All through the campaign, it didn’t have the answer to the AAP’s guarantees, which comprised freebies, though the party did promise not to impose any new taxes and to reduce the existing ones.

“We thought that these freebies being offered by AAP would never work with Chandigarh voters. There was some pressure on us too to respond with our set of freebies, but we didn’t think it was a responsible thing to do,” said Bansal.

While AAP and the BJP went on an advertisement blitzkrieg, including outdoor hoardings, radio jingles, newspaper and social media advertisements, the Congress didn’t put up an outdoor advertisement at all and only on the last day of the campaign brought newspaper advertisements. Unlike AAP, which came out with catchy slogans focussing on party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s public appeal, the Congress lagged far behind on this front too.

CLOSE CONTESTS, REBEL FACTOR

In some seats, the party’s rebel candidates, who joined AAP, made a major difference to its losing the seat. For instance, Prem Lata, who was denied a ticket by the party, won against its official candidate Ravinder Kaur Gujral. Lata left the Congress and fought on an AAP ticket.

On another seat, ward number 3, BJP candidate Dalip Sharma defeated Congress’s Ravi Kumar by a margin of 90 votes only. Sharma polled 3,220 votes, while Kumar got 3,130 votes. Here a rebel Congress candidate, Kamal Kumar (Yanki) standing on an AAP ticket, came third and polled 2,660 votes. Both Congress candidate and rebel candidate combined polled more votes than the BJP candidate.

“While there were strong candidates in all parties, some seats could have gone anywhere as the margins were close. We lost some of these but on any other day, these could have gone our way. That’s the first past the post system,” said Bansal.

BAD START

Notably, even before the election process got started, the party got a major setback when a major section of the party joined the AAP. The main trigger came when the party’s former city chief, Pardeep Chhabra, left it and became co-incharge in AAP. This while bolstering AAP’s grassroots network and giving it many of its candidates for the election, put the Congress on the back foot. The party’s leadership also didn’t make major efforts to bring back the dissidents. Ultimately, these not only split the party’s votes but also won in many wards. Even after the announcement of tickets, around half a dozen party workers went on the side of AAP.