Challenges galore for Congress to hang on till 2014
By S. Sethuraman
Has the devastating blow for the Congress in the state elections of 2012 damaged the party’s plans to salvage its credibility to hold on till 2014 and meanwhile push through a confidence-winning budget and a package of reforms such as would take the country out of a ‘stagflation’?
The state results, especially in UP which dashed even a ray of hope, highly expected to be generated by the hard-working “messiah” in Mr Rahul Gandhi, reflects a growing anti-Congress vote in the country, ominous for the party leading UPA-II, already in a desperate struggle to survive and rebuild a shattered image.
An overwhelming political crisis at the Centre is the stark reality thrown up by the verdict in the state elections of February/March 2012, hardly a week before Parliament’s budget session is opened by the President on March 12. The gravity of the economic and social problems before the nation cannot be concealed in the President’s Address to be delivered in the context of a growing threat to stability at the Centre.
A shocked Congress would certainly go through a critical week trying to repair the damage as much as it could, forging new “understandings” with the dominant regional parties, in order to get through with an economic agenda of reviving growth, making it more “inclusive” with some unavoidable populism but balanced with a semblance of fiscal prudence.
The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has gracefully congratulated the winners in the state elections, chiefly Samajwadi leader Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav who has staged a spectacular comeback to head the largest state of UP with its decisive influence on the course of polity, and perhaps gaining his goodwill in the consensus-building efforts of UPA-II to get through with major policy initiatives, which could be feasibly unveiled in the Union Budget – 2012-13 on March 16.
The Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee would be in close consultations with the Congress President Ms. Sonia Gandhi in chalking out the strategy for the budget session. But for the Congress to survive for the long haul in its second century, no less than a radical transformation is required in the way it functions at the national, state and local levels.
Having lost the roots virtually everywhere, the Congress allowed local and regional parties to occupy the space and gain strong footholds.
These forces gathered strength in course of time to be able to edge the Congress out of power in state after state over the more recent decades. For sheer survival, the Congress has to do nothing short of re-inventing itself as a party of the masses focussed on solving local and state level problems and making good the promises it holds out to the people. Mr Rahul Gandhi indeed realised the basic weaknesses of the Congress organisation and launched a drive in a few states for youth cadres and elections as the first stage of rebuilding the party for its long-term role. (IPA Service)