PROJECT CONFIDENCE

On March 16, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted: ‘Advice to BJP in Assam and CPIM in Kerala: Ask not how many ships are in the harbour, but which way the wind is blowing!’ It was an indirect assertion that despite the BJP’s high-profile campaign in the two poll-bound states, the saffron party was unlikely to win. However, Tharoor’s counsel to the saffron party’s Assam unit came as a surprise to many, as the BJPled ruling alliance is perceived to be on a strong wicket in the northeastern state.

- Kaushik Deka

His analysis of the direction of the ‘electoral wind’ perhaps flows from the confidence shown by the Congress’s Assam unit of a positive outcome in the assembly poll, scheduled in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6. This confidence is so high that Gandhi family loyalists in the Congress, expecting victory in Assam, suggest this will give Rahul Gandhi an opportunity to return as party president in June. In November last year, former Union minister Jitendra Singh, who has a great rapport with Rahul, took charge as the AICC (All India Congress Committee) general secretary in-charge of Assam, replacing former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat. Since then, Singh has been almost single-handedly planning the party’s election campaign.