Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP) 

Mangaluru, Nov 17: The Congress, which is both surprised and bewildered by the crushing defeat in the city corporation council election here, is trying to find out the cause for its debacle. Surprisingly, it has found that one of the reasons which compounded its miseries has been the independent candidates who have eaten away into its electoral base. 

The Congress leaders were not prepared for its stunning drubbing this time, although there was expectation of some influence because of dissatisfaction and discontentment within the party over allotment of tickets and some leaders crossing over to the BJP at the last minute. The party has, to its dismay, found that wherever independents were fielded, the BJP candidates won in most of such wards with a slender margin. If the votes polled by the independents were bagged by the Congress, it would have increased its tally by at least ten to 12 more seats. 

The constituencies where the Congress faced setback by a margin of a handful of votes happen to be Katipalla, Idya, Boloor Padavu, Kankanady, Kadri, and Krishnapura. In all these constituencies, the independents have cornered some votes. As per the analysis so far, votes for independents have gone based their castes. 

The party also found that in some wards, the minorities have this time leaned towards the BJP, which contributed to their defeat. Not appointing observers sufficiently in advance and not taking into account intelligence feedback also contributed to the woes of the Congress. 

The party is now studying the causes for its defeat in the corporation election, said district Congress president, Harish Kumar, who agreed that they have found some issues within the party also contributed to the party's poor performance. He said that the leaders would arrive at a concrete idea about the causes for the party's unexpected defeat in the corporation election within two weeks and take steps to address them.