New Delhi, March 7
After the euphoria, it is time for a reality check for the Congress. The Congress had barely started celebrating this year’s “please-all budget” when its crushing defeat and the CPM’s resounding victory in Tripura has pushed the party on the backfoot once again. The Left parties have already launched an offensive against the Congress on the Indo-US nuclear deal. But after the CPM’s emphatic win today, the Congress will have to contend with an even more belligerent Left Front.
While the Congress is yet to recover from the string of electoral defeats it suffered over the past year, the party is also beset with doubts about the possibility of reaping rich electoral dividends from the “pro-farmer budget” as party members believe faulty implementation of the scheme could even boomerang on them. The Congress is also concerned that the initial enthusiasm over the farmers’ loan waiver and other benefits announced in the budget may get overshadowed by the controversy over the nuclear deal which is clearly back on the political centre stage.
The CPM, which has already warned that it will pull the plug on the government if it goes ahead with the deal, was quick to challenge the Congress once again after its landslide victory in Tripura. Daring the Congress to confront it on policy issues anywhere in the country, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said the election results had exposed the “hollowness” of its economic policies.
Pushed on the defensive, the Congress maintained the Assembly polls were fought on local issues and the results were not a reflection on the UPA government.
“It is local factors which led to our defeat in Tripura. The results are not a referendum on the UPA’s economic policies. Nor is it a rejection of the Centre’s people friendly budget,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said.
The Congress has reason to worry on another front.
With the nuke deal all set to grab headlines in the coming days, the Congress is nervous that any benefit the party could have derived from the budgetary proposals may well be diluted.
“If doubts are again raised about the longevity of the government then everything else goes into the background,” said a glum-faced AICC office-bearer. Karat has written to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee asking him to convene a meeting of the joint UPA-Left committee by March 15 to ascertain the government’s stand on the issue now that the talks with the IAEA have been finalised.
