Congress close to implosion; will Sonia-Azad meet resolve issues?

Made only worse by the party’s recent rout in five Assembly polls, is the ongoing turmoil within the Congress party hurtling towards a full-blown implosion?-

Within days of interim chief Sonia Gandhi presiding over a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to discuss the way forward for her beleaguered party, 17 party veterans – most of them members of the so-called G23 – met for dinner at the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday, March 16.

A late night statement issued by the leaders read: “We believe that the only way forward is for the Congress to adopt the model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision making at all levels.” The signatories said that “in order to oppose the BJP it is necessary to strengthen the Congress Party”,  and demanded that the Congress “initiate dialogue with other like minded forces to create a platform to pave the way for a credible alternative for 2024”. The “next steps in this regard will be announced soon”, they added.

Also read: What’s aam here? Mega splurge on Mann’s swearing-in raises eyebrows

The leaders gathered at Azad’s dinner included G-23 members such as Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha, Shashi Tharoor, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Raj Babbar, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Kuldeep Sharma. Others who joined the group of party ‘rebels’ included Congress MP from Patiala and wife of former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Preneet Kaur, former MPs Sandeep Dikshit and MA Khan, former Rajya Sabha Deputy Speaker PJ Kurian and former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, once a close confidant of the Gandhi family. Former Gujarat CM Shankarsinh Vaghela, who had quit the Congress in 2017, was also present at the dinner.

Kapil Sibal’s outburst

The dinner was earlier planned at Sibal’s residence. However, after the senior advocate and former Union Minister’s all-out attack at the Gandhi family in an interview to a leading national daily, in which he demanded that the Gandhis should “voluntarily move away” from leadership roles, the venue was changed to Azad’s residence. Sources said the party high command, already incensed at Sibal’s increasing shrill diatribes against it over the past year, was also considering his expulsion from the party.

The Congress high command may take a call on Sibal’s ouster on the grounds of anti-party activities in the next few days. However, sources say the Gandhis face a dilemma on how to handle the steadily swelling ranks of dissenters challenging their authority.

Also read: Social media being abused to hack India’s democracy, says Sonia Gandhi

This, sources said, is not on account of the popularity of the reform-seekers but for a combination of other factors. “Barring Bhupinder Hooda, none of the other leaders demanding change of leadership actually has any mass base but there are other complications in taking harsh steps against them,” a senior Congress office-bearer told The Federal.

“Take, for instance, Manish Tewari and Preneet Kaur. Both are Lok Sabha MPs and expelling them would mean our strength in the Lok Sabha will further go down. Azad sahib is still our most prominent face in Kashmir and though he was never a mass leader in his state, he has carefully created a constituency of supporters across J&K over the past year,” said the leader. “A large section within the party believes that these people should be shown the door but we also have to look at the situation realistically – the optics would be terrible particularly. The BJP will go to town claiming Sonia Gandhi is willing to sacrifice leaders who spent a lifetime in the party only to protect the position of her family.”

Azad-Sonia meeting

Azad, said sources, is likely to meet Sonia on Thursday (March 17) and put forth the view of the dissenters. The meeting, called by Sonia, is being viewed as another effort by her to find an amicable solution to what has already become an acrimonious standoff between her family and its one-time loyalists. The Congress chief had made a similar effort in December 2020, months after the G23 had shot off a letter to her demanding an organisational overhaul and full time leadership, but to no avail.

A leader present at the dinner hosted by the former J&K chief minister told The Federal that Azad, will “put forth our view candidly and forcefully… we are staunch Congress loyalists and many of us have been in the party since before some of the current office bearers accusing us of being traitors were even born… we want to see a strong Congress but we don’t see that happening under the present system… if the party feels that our position is unjustified, it can expel us but we won’t leave the party of our own accord… you can call it a dare, an ultimatum to the leadership or see it for what it is – our sincere concern for revitalising the Congress.”

For Sonia, the challenge of pulling her party out of the deepening abyss of organisational inertia, disaffection within the ranks and swiftly eroding confidence in the Gandhi family name, is getting more daunting with every passing day.

Loss in Punjab

On Wednesday (March 16), Sonia had called party MPs from Punjab for a discussion on the abysmal poll performance in the state where the AAP dislodged the Congress government with an unprecedented majority of 92 seats in the 117-member assembly. The Congress, which had ousted its CM, Captain Amarinder Singh, last September following a rebellion backed by Rahul and Priyanka, and then nominated Charanjit Channi as the state’s first Dalit Sikh CM, went from its tally of 77 seats in 2017 to just 18 seats on March 10. Channi too lost the election from both constituencies he contested.

Sources say Sonia encouraged a frank discussion with the Punjab MPs and got exactly that. “Short of directly accusing her, Rahul and Priyanka of handing Punjab to the AAP on a platter, everything was said,” a Congress Lok Sabha MP from Punjab told The Federal.

“She was told that the party went on a downward spiral the moment a committee under Mallikarjun Kharge was set up (at Sonia’s direction) last June to resolve the factional fights in Punjab Congress. Sidhu’s appointment, the strategy of playing the Dalit card with making Channi the CM, the perception of Congress being against Jat Sikhs and Hindus of Punjab, and finally the mess created by (in-charges) Harish Rawat and his successor (Harish Chaudhary), were all brought up by different MPs… Even the choice of observers for the election, particularly the appointment of Ajay Maken whose only contribution to the Congress is of having dug the Congress’s grave in Delhi, was suicidal,” the MP said.

Authorised by the CWC, on March 13, to “address organisational weaknesses, and effect necessary and comprehensive organisational changes in order to take on the political challenges”, Sonia had asked party chiefs of UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur to tender their resignations taking moral responsibility for the Congress’s decimation.

The five chiefs – Navjot Sidhu (Punjab), Ganesh Godiyal (Uttarakhand), Ajay Kumar Lallu (UP), Ganesh Chodankar, Loken Singh (Manipur) and Girish Chodankar (Goa) – have all followed the diktat without much fuss.

Role of Priyanka in UP

However, the decision has only led to other murmurs within the party regarding the lack of action against the party’s central in-charges of these states. This disquiet throws up a peculiar problem for Sonia as the in-charge for UP was her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi.

It is common knowledge that the entire UP campaign – from selection of candidates, the party’s decision to reserve 40 per cent of tickets for women, drawing up the manifesto, contesting on all 403 states, et al – was personally overseen by Priyanka. The Congress ended up winning just two seats in the UP Assembly – down from the seven it had got in 2017 – and with a mere 2.3 per cent vote share. Though Priyanka did lead a spirited campaign and addressed over 160 rallies across the state, many in the party believe she centralised all decision-making and her long absences from the state, coupled with the arrogance of members of her inner coterie such as Sandeep Singh and Mohit Pandey, had directly contributed to the continuing tailspin of the party.

Also read: Congress sinking: Muddled ideology, work-from-home strategies & inertia

The issue of Priyanka’s role in UP had also come up at the dinner hosted by Azad, said a leader present at the do. “Decisions like reserving 40 per cent tickets for women should have been discussed at the CWC and leaders of other states where elections were held should also have been consulted but Priyanka did not find this necessary. You can’t simply act on a whim and take elections as a reform experiment… besides, when you say the party has decided to have 40 per cent women candidates in UP but for other states this rule doesn’t apply, you are starting from a point of hypocrisy,” the leader said, requesting anonymity.

The complaints and anger among party leaders against other in-charges, particularly Harish Chaudhary (Punjab), Devender Yadav (Uttarakhand) and Bhakta Charan Das (Manipur), are far worse than those against Priyanka. For instance, Chaudhary has been accused by several Punjab Congress leaders of fomenting factional feuds, especially between Sidhu and Charanjit Channi, and of even distributing tickets for a consideration.

Yadav too, an Uttarakhand Congress leader told The Federal, was “actively promoting the war between campaign chief Harish Rawat and leader of Opposition Pritam Singh and was arrogant in dealing with local leaders”. Das, a Manipur Congress leader said, was “outright incompetent and the party had to rush in Jairam Ramesh and other leaders to clean up the mess he was creating”.

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

If Sonia decides to sack Chaudhary, Das, Yadav or Dinesh Gundu Rao (in-charge, Goa) and let Priyanka run the show in UP, she will naturally strengthen the accusations of nepotism and dynasty politics that the Gandhi family is all too familiar with.

Action against Rahul appointees

If the question of sacking or continuing with Priyanka in UP is a perplexing one for Sonia, the demand from various sections of her organisation to act against key appointees of Rahul Gandhi is an equally puzzling one.

Sources say many Congress leaders want Sonia to replace the party’s organisational general secretary, KC Venugopal, and media cell chief, Randeep Surjewala – both close aides of Rahul. Party leaders accuse Venugopal of being “incompetent, arrogant and inaccessible” and often argue that though he fashions himself as the new-age Ahmed Patel (Sonia’s trusted advisor who passed away last year due to Covid), he lacks both political stature and the Machiavellian acumen required to discharge his present role. Surjewala is accused routinely for the party’s poor communication strategy.

However, Congress sources say Sonia has been reluctant to act against Venugopal, Surjewala or other office bearers appointed at Rahul’s insistence despite the rising complaints about their functioning by party leaders, many of whom are  frustrated enough to quit the organisation.

Replacements for sacked leaders

With PCC chiefs of the five states now sacked, Sonia has to also name their replacements as well as decide the legislative party leader and leader of Opposition in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Sonia has begun this process with the appointment of leaders who will “assess the post poll situation and suggest organisational changes” after consulting with the MLA candidates and important leaders.

Also read: Here’s what Tharoor thinks can revive Congress’ sinking fortunes

However, many in the party say the leaders she has chosen for the purpose – Rajani Patil (Goa), Ajay Maken (Punjab), Jairam Ramesh (Manipur), Jitendra Singh (UP) and Avinash Pandey (Uttarakhand) – inspire little confidence for a commitment towards course correction.

“Just earlier today the Punjab Congress MPs complained to her about Maken and hours later she gives him responsibility for the same state. Rajani Patil made a mess of the party in Himachal and then J&K as in-charge. Jitendra Singh has been a disaster in every role he has been assigned so far, whether as in-charge of Odisha during the Lok Sabha polls or of Assam in last year’s assembly polls. Avinash Pandey was removed from Rajasthan because of actively pitting Ashok Gehlot against Sachin Pilot. Why do we repeatedly give these people a chance when we know their long track record of failures?” remarked a party leader from UP.

Lack of alternatives

Many in the Congress do agree that the party has no choice but to stick to the Gandhis due to the sheer lack of an alternative. Yet, party leaders also claim that the Gandhis, long believed to be the ‘glue that binds the Congress together’ have now lost their capacity to keep the party electorally and politically relevant. The common refrain, even among loyalists, is that the family needs to settle the leadership question and that the excuse of the process for electing a full-time president being underway (the process is scheduled to end this September) is only leading to further drift and loss of morale.