Electoral rout of Congress: Chintan. Manthan. Yawn. Repeat

A rudderless Congress has yet again failed to stem its electoral slide that began in 2014. The rout in the Assembly elections in five states has further strengthened the perception that the grand old party has lost the zeal to fight the polls.

Not accounting for Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where it is a junior partner in the ruling alliance, the Congress is now in power in just two states — Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. In other words, the 137-year-old party now has just two Chief Ministers, the same as the nearly decade-old Aam Aadmi Party, which recorded its historic win in Punjab on March 10.

The AAP’s expansionist plans for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh — both due for polls at the end of this year — are a clear threat to the Congress, which is in Opposition in these states and has no clear flight path for returning to power. Registering a win in either of the two states is extremely crucial for the Congress to stay politically and electorally relevant.

And yet, the Congress continues to be in a state of flux as it grapples with the leadership crisis.

Rahul Gandhi had resigned from the party chief’s post in May 2019, following the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections.

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After much persuasion, a reluctant Sonia Gandhi agreed to hold the post on the condition that it would be a temporary arrangement. She had handed over the party reins to Rahul Gandhi in December 2017 after remaining at the helm for over 19 consecutive years.

It has now been three years, but the party is unable to find her successor. Literally a figurehead, she has delegated the decision making to her son. While Rahul Gandhi is still not interested in taking up the responsibility, he continues to call the shots.

Rahul Gandhi’s detractors often allege that his decisions are largely guided by a “band of MBA graduates and some rootless wonders”. Sonia Gandhi had the Machiavellian Ahmed Patel to help her navigate the labyrinth of politics, both within the Congress and outside it. Rahul is surrounded by the likes of KC Venugopal who is a lightweight in Kerala politics with no ear to the ground and a supposed ‘troubleshooter’ who is actually disliked by most troublemakers in the party.

Patel’s death has left a void as the Congress is yet to find his successor to fill his shoes. Patel was not only a master strategist but also acted as a bridge between the workers and the leadership. That bridge has collapsed, widening the gap between the two arms of the party organisation.

The beleaguered Congress is battling both external and internal factors. Apart from electoral reverses, the party has also been hit by dissension.

A letter by a group of 23 Congress leaders, known as G-23, in August 2020 created ripples in the party. These leaders, including veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik, urged Sonia to initiate a process to have an active and visible leadership apart from holding elections from top to bottom in the organisation, including the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

Several of the G-23 members continue to intermittently embarrass the party with their public broadside against the central leadership and expressions of concern for the organisational rot. While the G-23 is, no doubt, guilty of aiding or benefitting from the same accusations they hurl at the party high command, there is no denying that their thrust for organisational reform and a full-time president has eminent merit.

Organisational polls and the election to the President’s post will now be held in September. But no one in the Congress knows whether Rahul is ready to don the hat once again or a proxy will be installed.

The indecisiveness and status quo-ist approach has resulted in the exit of many leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh – all former ministers in the UPA government and close to Rahul.

These exits are manifestations of frustration among these young leaders who see no future in the party. It is not that they were sidelined in the Congress. All of them were holding key party posts at the time of their departure.

This indecisiveness cost the party its government in Madhya Pradesh and almost led to the fall of another in Rajasthan. State units such as Odisha and Goa are functioning with interim chiefs. Similarly, a decision is awaited on the status of Himachal Pradesh unit chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore who completed his tenure in December last year. With elections in Himachal just a few months away, the Congress leadership is yet to identify Rathore’s replacement though the names of young leaders such as Sudhir Sharma have been doing the rounds for several months now.

This repeated failure of the so-called Congress high command to convert the organisation into an election fighting machine like the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah, both 24×7 politicians with an evidently keener eye on electoral victories than actual governance, has further weakened the party and added to the prevailing chaos.

There is no substitute for hard work and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP has proved this with its stupendous performance in Punjab.

After every election, the Congress high command talks about bringing about a change and transforming the party. But these have remained mere promises on paper.

And every time the drubbing is attributed to weak organisational structure. The old-timers in the party would insist on ‘chintan and manthan’ (introspection and brainstorming). Rahul and his colleagues prefer assertions such as “every election is a lesson for us whether we win or lose”. But evidently, no lessons are being learnt.

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At most, a CWC meeting is held to discuss the outcome or a committee is appointed to look into the reasons for the debacle. And this panel is invariably led by veteran leader AK Antony, who has apparently sought retirement from active politics and the Rajya Sabha.

Will the Congress adopt the same procedure or go for an innovative step this time remains to be seen.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi and is currently associated with Pixstory)