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Chief Election Commissioner VVS Sampath hinted that the Indian National Congress may be clubbed with NOTA for upcoming polls, given their increasing irrelevance and trail of debacles in recent Assembly polls.
“We at the Election Commission have been studying the performance of the Congress,” Sampath told The UnReal Times, “and have come to the conclusion that they are a good substitute for NOTA. They have a phantom presence in all states but struggle to reach the double digit mark everywhere, are relegated to fourth or fifth place in multi cornered fights, a bit like what Bangladesh is to the World Cup, and in the end, no one wants to ally with them.”
“Given this pattern, why do some people still waste their vote on Congress? It could mean only one thing: that these people are highly disenchanted with the electoral process and want to signal their disenchantment by voting for India’s grand old party. So it makes eminent sense to club a vote for Congress with NOTA as part of ongoing electoral reforms,” Sampath observed.
But what about the grand old party’s decent showing in J&K, where it managed a respectable 12 seats? “J&K is different from the rest of India,” Sampath cautioned. “Such high numbers could signal extreme disillusionment with Indian democracy. That and Action Jackson releasing a few days before polling.”
All political parties, both across the communal and secular camps, have welcomed the move. “Look what allying with them after the Delhi Assembly elections did to us,” AAP’s Kejriwal said. “What keeps me awake at night these days is these Congress chaps again offering us unconditional support after the Delhi repolls. That would be the end of AAP. It is best that the 4 or 5 seats they will probably get simply be taken out of the calculation.”
The Congress has objected to the EC’s recommendations. “Agreed, we are becoming irrelevant but that is because Rahul baba has not been campaigning vigorously,” a Gandhi family loyalist said.
The BJP also agreed, albeit for different reasons. “Had Rahul campaigned in Jammu, we could have picked up a few more seats and been in a better position to form the government,” a BJP leader pointed out.