The Congress, which has seen back to back defeats in elections -- from assembly to Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee and now Moga bypoll -- has plunged into introspection to seek reasons for failure. Amarinder Singh, who is under fire for poor leadership, had issued show cause notices to a few leaders, who had made themselves unavailable for canvassing in the byelection.
However, on Saturday, Brahm Mohindra, MLA from Patiala, retaliated sharply to the show cause notice, going public with his discontentment. For Congress, the MLA's outburst has come to haunt the party as it clearly indicates that the ghosts of defeat in assembly polls have still not been laid to rest.
Saying that he is "bewildered" at the show cause notice, Mohindra has written in his reply, "In 2002, you patronized and sponsored a Congress rebel in order to defeat me. It is a well known fact. In 2007, when I was contesting from Samana, on your asking, I organized a public meeting at the peak of the campaign, shockingly for which you never turned up. Again, in 2012, you not even once came to my constituency.'
Claiming that he was campaigning in Moga with his relatives, Mohindra said, "It never occurred to me that I am supposed to show my face to you each time. Rather than issuing notice to others, you should issue a notice to yourself and go into a serious introspection why Congress lost elections in 2007 and now in 2012 under your presidentship."
On the flip side, the Akali leadership has also plunged into a cleansing exercise after the win. The SAD candidate, Joginderpal Jain, who switched loyalties from Congress to SAD, had suffered dissent from within the party, especially from loyalists of P S Gill, who had fought on Akali ticket from Moga against Jain in the assembly elections and had lost. Senior leaders in the party said that warnings have been issued to Akali activists and leaders, who worked against their own candidate in the byelection.
