Assembly elections are over but the hangovers are still there. Though government formation is completed, there is lots of work to be done for the political parties. Beginning from the BJP, yes, I know that the party has been in Meghalaya for more than 32 years. This is a long period of time and if the party cannot grow in strength in terms of having many MLAs there must be some serious fundamental internal reasons that this most popular widely accepted ruling party of India cannot expand and grow here.
In Meghalaya the name of this party is widely known in every nook and corner through the media but there are no leaders and workers working and engaging with the masses in the Districts and Mandals (Blocks), not to mention in different hamlets and villages. Yes there are leaders only in the State capital and in one or two districts but where are the grass-root leaders and workers? Leaders and workers should come from amongst the masses that live and die with them. When elections were due, a hectic search for setting up candidates overnight and randomly in all 60 constituencies was done. What is this foolish and mad action by the State leaders including the BJP leader in charge of Meghalaya?
The most prudent and correct step to do was to set up viable candidates only in those focal constituencies where there are grass-root leaders and workers who have been working and engaging in good works among the masses for a considerable period of time. What were the State BJP leaders doing all these years? The number of MLAs remains static at just two whereas there were at least six or seven promising constituencies that the party should have won with thumping margins during the last elections considering the efforts and investments that the party high command has invested. What is important to do now onwards for the state party leaders is to work hard and ceaselessly with proper planning and strategies. Where are the good works done by the state BJP leaders seen on the ground? None at all!
If the BJP leaders are there in the office only to expect funds coming from Delhi headquarters and to share it among themselves and no tangible results on the grounds then it will never grow even if elections come in 2028, 2033 and 2038. Yes, the heads of Meghalaya BJP State Mandal have to roll if the party has to play a major partner in ruling the state in near future. For how long it will have to wait, even though it has a long term plan for the future. I am quite cynical about its positive outcome in the foreseeable future. For this the State Mandal has to do a lot of introspection and diagnosis to fix the omissions and commissions.
As for the Congress it already has its organisational set up and vote bank built over the years but it is in serious crisis in its State leadership. It just needs a capable and dynamic leader to lead from the front as Vincent Pala has failed to win even from his own turf and far from attaining the State leadership stature. Even winning the next Lok Sabha seat in 2024 is in serious doubt because the political equations and dynamics have now changed in many Assembly segments. Is the vote bank of the Congress still intact or has it been reduced by 2023? Certainly it has.
Having said that, the Congress party also requires immediate shake-up in the leadership in a number of blocks which have witnessed mass exodus of its top leaders to the NPP and other parties. In spite of the mass exodus of leaders to other parties, Congress was able to win five seats because of second rung leaders and had not for this exodus the party would have secured a majority on its own in the last elections. However, it has to go back to the drawing board, adopt suitable planning and strategies and work harder for MDC and MP elections which are hardly a year from now. At the same time it has to find out ways and means together with other opposition colleagues and in collusion with some bigger ruling factions, on how to deflate the tyres of the NPP driven vehicle.
Turning to the Trinamool Congress, I can say that it has done quite well by securing five seats in spite of odds stacked against it and being a new entrant in the State, to reach out to the electorate of Meghalaya is not easy because voters here are hesitant to vote for a new party. For the task ahead it has an arduous journey to make itself politically meaningful and to seize power in Meghalaya in near future not single handedly of course, but in collusion with others in whatever way politically and mutually acceptable.
With regard to the UDP, it has offered itself as a sacrificial lamb at the altar of NPP and the hope to rise is very remote rather it is fear of fall that looms large in the horizon. With the hope of giving more stability to the NPP led government, UDP will slowly be sapped of its vibrancy, vitality and relevance by the NPP. In any case, the NPP does not need UDP. It is the other round. UDP has no bargaining power in the new dispensation unlike during 2018-2022. In the end of this term it will find itself on dry ground without water unless it can manage to wriggle out of this predicament in which it is in. As for the VPP, its future prospects will be very bright provided it can play its cards well and perform its role effectively and splendidly. It all depends on its think tank.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Meghalaya)
