Congress party is losing battles and the Bhartiya Janta Party is now ready to take on its political rival in upcoming war - General Election - armed with recent victories in state assembly elections. First Punjab, then Gujarat and now Himachal Pradesh, the BJP is roaring while Congress is keeping its pitch low.

Now, UPA’s main ally in center, Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also criticized Congress for its policies, approach and election strategy in Gujarat. CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat blamed Congress for not taking necessary steps to seriously challenge Modi’s ‘communal’ plank in Gujarat.

Karat, in his first statement after the result of assembly election in Gujarat, said:

The Gujarat election results underline the necessity for an uncompromising struggle against the Hindutva variety of communalism.

Such a political platform has to be built up in the state and forces rallied around it. The Congress party, as the main opposition in Gujarat, has shirked doing so. This is a shortsighted and harmful approach.

Karat’s statement is a part of his own writing likely to be published in the next issue of People’s Democracy, the CPI(M) mouthpiece. However, Congress hit back at Karat’s statement and said Karat should have come and held meetings during election campaign in Gujarat.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh said:

It could be Karat’s own opinion. But the question is that where was Prakash Karat during campaigning in Gujarat. He should have come and held meetings in Gujarat. He should have extended support to Congress.

The gap between Congress and Communists is likely to be much widened in the aftermath of back to back defeats in assembly elections. The communist leaders have every reason with them to withdraw the crucial support from the UPA government in center. The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is still in process despite repeated warnings by CPM.

Now, the defeats in assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh would certainly weaken the pitch of Congress against Communist allies because at this point of time, the party would not feel comfortable to go for General election even in 2008. It will be interesting to see how Congress keeps things under control in UPA-left combination.