THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress working committee member A K Antony has cautioned state congress leadership against overconfidence ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in the state.
Reacting to survey of a regional news channel which predicted a comfortable victory for LDF in coming Assembly polls in the state, Antony said people’s views should not be taken lightly. Election is a battle for which one has to remain awake and vigilant till the end. We fail to get the desired results when overconfidence sets in,” he said.
The senior Congress leader cited the example of Aruvikkara bypoll in which the UDF candidate K S Sabarinathan won with a majority which was much beyond party’s expectations.
After the victory many UDF and Congress leaders became over confident. They felt that the UDF was unbeatable and could conquer everything and this was one of the reasons for the defeat in local bodies poll, he added.
Antony said over confidence was not good for the leaders and the party. Despite the adverse trend shown in the survey, he was confident of better showing.
“Two conditions are very important. First there should be complete unity among Congress leaders for sending across the right message to workers. Such a unity will reflect among the cadre and galvanise them.
Candidate selection is the second biggest factor for success in elections. Antony said the number of people who vote for party symbols was coming down significantly. “Even members of the same family vote differently now. Under these circumstances the better the candidate the brighter the prospects of winning,” he added.
On who will lead the Congress in coming polls, the senior leader said party men in Kerala had accepted Oommen Chandy, V M Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithla as their leaders.
Under their collective leadership the Congress would fight elections and ensure victory. “The first and foremost task is to win the polls the leadership matter will be decided by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and high command later,” he said.
