By Upendra Prasad
After getting decimated in the last Lok Sabha election, the grand old party of India, Indian National Congress is facing unprecedented crisis of its history and the way, the party is functioning only suggests that it is in a self destruction mode. It is not facing any problem from outside. It did not get defeated because BJP was better than it. It is facing the problem, which it has created for itself. It has stuck itself in the mire and it is not showing the will power, which is needed to get out of the mess it has landed in.
After the historic defeat in the last Lok Sabha election, the prestige of the leadership of the party has reached such a low that any Congress man can raise his fingers on it. The same thing is happening. Congressmen from each and every part of the country are questioning the capacity of the present leadership to lead the party successfully. Both mother and son duo are facing rebellion and their authorities are being undermined by the dissidents of many states. Haryana, Maharashtra and Assam are being ruled by the Congress Chief Ministers and they are the nominees of Sonia and Rahul. Now dissidents are demanding their resignations and their replacement with other leaders. Sonia and Rahul have refused their demands.
There was a time, when the words of mother and son duo were the last words in Congress affairs, but now Congressmen are even disobeying the high command and showing their rebellion. If things do not improve, Congress may lose Assam. In Maharashtra and Haryana, Assembly Elections will be held in a couple of months or so and weakened by the rebellion the party is condemned to lose these two states with big margins as well. It has already lost a valued partner in Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference led by Farooq Abdulla is no more in its alliance. Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra is flexing its muscle too, and no one will be surprised if NCP decides to go alone in Maharashtra. It should be recalled that after its formation in 1999 by splitting Congress, NCP had fought both Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections alone. Only after election it decided to forge alliance with Congress to form Maharashtra Government, because the Assembly Election had sprung a hung Assembly.
The condition of Congress in Maharashtra is pathetic and it won just two Lok Sabha seats, while NCP won four Lok Sabha seats. It should be mentioned that Congress had contested more seats than NCP. It is true that both NCP and Congress got defeated in the election, but NCP is in comparatively better position. This has encouraged NCP to bargain hard with Congress and if it fails to extract much, it may go alone only to see the further downfall of the grand old party of India.
With the humiliating defeat, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul should have positioned themselves to face the problems of dissentions in party, but sadly, they did nothing in that direction. After the election, it was rumored that Rahul went on vacation and even missed the farewell party of the outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Rahul must know that politics is not a part time occupation. One has to do overtime, if he or she has to survive and succeed. Rahul is leading the Congress, which is facing the challenge of survival after the all round defeat from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. In majority of the states, Congress could not even open its account and in no state its winning tally entered into double digit. It is worth mentioning that while campaigning before Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forecasting that Congress would not get double digit number in any state and it would not open its account in many states. His forecast has come true. Not only this, he was also asking people of India to make the country free from Congress (Congress Mukt Bharat). Whenever he (Mr. Modi) asked the audience to make India free from Congress, he used to get big applause.
Congress leaders might have been thinking that they will recapture power once Narendra Modi l wave subsides. But the ground reality is very different. With the rising anti incumbency, the second party gets automatic benefits. That is why to get benefitted by this politics of negativism; one has to remain at least the second party. But, Congress has even lost the second space in many important states of the country. In UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Telengana, Congress is no more even the second political power. BJP has raised its stock even in Assam and Odisha. Even in West Bengal BJP has increased its voting percentage which is higher than that of Congress, In these states anti incumbency against he ruling party is not going to help Congress and in the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, where there are two party system, Congress is losing continuously for last three or four elections. Even in Haryana it is feared that Congress may lose its second slot after Assembly Election, which may be held in two or three months.
Congress has tasted defeat in the past too, but this time the nature of defeat is different. In 1977 and 1989, Congress got defeated because of the unity of non Congress Parties. Naturally, it stages a comeback after the breakup of the unity. Even the comeback of Congress in 2004 was not due to its strength; rather it could form its government because of the anti BJP mood of most of the political parties. Because of that mood, the left supported it to form the government and leaders like Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan had joined it before the election.
Now the scenario has changed. Congress has lost because of its own weakness and it can regain its glory only by removing them. But who will remove these weaknesses?. As an organization, Congress is dependent on Sonia and Rahul and they are not showing the political will which is needed at this juncture. By their action and inaction they seem to be leading Congress to nowhere. (IPA Service)