Assembly polls counting: Crunch time for Congress, Plan B in place to shield Rahul

New Delhi: As the nation gets glued to TV sets from Sunday morning onwards to find out the results for the assembly elections in four states (Mizoram counting is on Dec 9), party managers in the Congress are worried over exit poll surveys, that project BJP coming to power in MP, Rajasthan and Delhi. Though in public, Congress leader Digvijay Singh has already said twice that opinion polls serve no purpose and should be consigned to the dustbins, party managers feel anti-incumbency is very much in the air. Digvijay Singh on Saturday claimed that his party would perform well in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, but on Rajasthan and Delhi, he said, he was not in a position to say anything, because he was not in touch with the leaders of these states. Party backroom managers are chalking out a plan wherein party leaders appearing on TV shows on Sunday have been asked to say that the election results were not a reflection on the leadership qualities of party vice president Rahul Gandhi. The media panelists have been briefed to say that the anti-incumbency, if at all it appears in the results, are state-specific and have nothing to do with the UPA government at the Centre. Congress party managers point out that the leadership of Sonia Gandhi has been tried and tested in the last two general elections, and it would be incorrect to link the results of four assembly elections to Rahul Gandhi's leadership skills. Party managers are also at pains to explain that the results in these states do not necessarily mean endorsement of the leadership of Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. Conversely, the media panelists have been asked to pinpoint any setback to the BJP in any state to project that Modi's balloon has ultimately burst. Meanwhile, the Congress is now serious about putting in place its plans for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, slated to take place during April-May next year. The party may still like to avoid a Rahul versus Modi scenario at the hustings next year, observers say.