I am greatly pained as result pour in, ensuring yet another debacle for our party at the hustings. Unfortunately, this has been the first election under your leadership and alas, we have failed to even retain our numbers of the 1998 elections.
You would recall that at a critical time like the 1996 elections when senior leaders had walked out of the party, the party was reduced to 142 seats. Although we were the second largest party, many in the party claimed that we did not have the people's mandate to stake a claim for government formation. Therefore, even as the BJP failed to muster enough support, the Congress took a backseat and allowed H D Deve Gowda to take over. The reason was to stop P V Narasimha Rao from becoming the Prime Minister again.
During the 1998 elections, you were our star campaigner and you said your interest was limited to keep the party united and stopping the communal forces from coming to power. Despite all your efforts, we got 141 seats all of which were credited to you. Yet, Sitaram Kesri was removed from Congress Presidentship.
However, this election was entirely under your leadership And we have not even reached 120 seats. Much as you would deny, the results go out to prove that the people have voted against you as the prime ministerial candidate.
In Andhra Pradesh, we got a mere 6 Lok Sabha seats. In comparison, the party fared better in the assembly because people voted for local representatives and leaders, not for their prime ministerial candidate. The same happened in Maharashtra where Lok Sabha seats were reduced to 10 from the previous 33 Karnataka fared better due to a split within the ruling Janata Dal and more so because of the anti-incumbency factor.
To prove my point, I would like to recall that Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan had beaten all expectations some eight months ago where the Congress swept all three states. The waves was due to projection of appropriate local leaders for chief ministership and other issues such as price rise.
However, in the very same states we have been humbled in the parliamentary polls. You will have to admit that the moral responsibility for this humility is yours.
The defeat is here to stay until you allow a leader with wider acceptability to take over the reins of the party. It would be in your interest at this juncture to forego your acceptability in the party rank and file, like Shri N D Tewari or Shri Rajesh Pilot, to take over as CPP leader.
It is evident that in due course of time there would be absolute polarisation in the country, as BJP and anti-BJP forces, in which you may find yourself in a precarious position with some regional parties not willing to accept you as their leader.
I am not writing to you for the first time. I have told you that you are surrounded by sycophants and a small coterie which advises you not in the interest of the party but in their own selfish interests.
This is the time for you to take stock of the situation and rid the party of those elements who have a one-time agenda of achieving their personal goals.
Being a member of the Congress party, I thought it was my responsibility to pin-point a few facts to you.
With warm regards,
Matang Singh
