Hold before you anoint Priyanka Gandhi Vadra next saviour of Congress

New Delhi: The chorus has started but it is yet to reach a crescendo.

So is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra responsible for Congress’ victory in the Himachal Pradesh assembly election? Many congratulatory messages for Priyanka poured in from the Congress rank and file after the party managed to recapture power in the hill state.

Congress won 40 seats in a house of 68 giving it a clear majority.

It’s true that Congress’ tallest leader Rahul Gandhi didn’t campaign in Himachal at all as he remained busy with Bharat Jodo Yatra and it was his sister Priyanka, who is also party general secretary, who took over the charge of campaigning in the state. She was in Himachal on the day of counting as well, which meant she was ready to take ownership of the results, even if it went the other way round.

So was it the Priyanka effect that led to Congress’s victory in Himachal?

Those with an ear to the ground say BJP was on an extremely shaky ground in the hill state from the word go.

Political observers say people in Himachal were angry with the BJP and they wanted to throw it out of power at any cost. Denial of the old pension scheme turned out of the biggest issue that led to the party’s downfall. Congress was just a default option for voters angry with the BJP. The grand old party’s campaign remained lacklustre at best.

Congress didn’t win, it was the BJP that lost. If voters had another option besides Congress, they would have gone for it too.

In this scenario, how justified is the chorus that Priyanka is responsible for Congress’s victory?

If this is the case, then she should be held responsible for the party’s loss in Uttar Pradesh too where she had the reign of the campaign.

Observers add that Congress would be wise to hold its celebrations till the time it sorts out the thorny issue of the next chief minister of the state. There are too many contenders for the CM’s post and two among them, Kaul Singh Thakur and Asha Kumari lost the polls. Three top contenders for the post are - Pratibha Singh, a member of Lok Sabha from Mandi and wife of former state CM late Virbhadra Singh, former state party chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukku and an MLA from Nadaun, and Mukesh Agnihotri, who was elected from Haroli and was the leader of the Congress legislature party in the outgoing assembly.

Another challenge for the party would be to keep its flock together from poaching by the BJP. Once the issue of the next chief minister is sorted out and the new cabinet is formed, there would be too many disgruntled elements in the party that the BJP can eye.

Congress doesn’t have a poaching-proof majority in Himachal and there would always be a danger of a “Madhya Pradesh” happening here. Therefore, Congress would need a CM who would keep the party MLAs together and away from the prying eyes of the BJP and by all accounts, it seems Priyanka will have a final say in who is going to the next CM of the state.

So the challenges are multifold for the party and if Priyanka can tackle these challenges, only then she can get a slice of the victory.