By OJ Thabah
The past few days particularly the last week of September has been quite an eventful one for the Indian National Congress and from a neutral standpoint, the signs are less than stellar. The entry of two young leaders, Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani, is a welcome move for the party which is in need of fresh and young blood after the departure of many of its ‘Young Turks’ in the recent past like Alpesh Thakor, Dhavalsinh Zala, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sushmita Dev, Jitin Prasada and most recently Lalitesh Tripathi citing ‘lack of ideological clarity’. But, the Gandhis and the supporters of the party were left staggered on September 28, by PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who posted a letter of resignation that indicated his displeasure at the changes in the Punjab administration. Sources indicate that Sidhu was angry with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s modifications to his cabinet by people perceived to be close to him. Although Sidhu was commonly seen to serve as “super-chairman” in several choices, in subsequent appointments he was allegedly overlooked as contentious.
The Congress experienced dual retrogressions, with Sidhu resigning from the post and former Goa Chief Minister, Luizinho Faleiro, leaving the party. The 70-year old Faleiro eventually joined the ambitious Trinamool Congress along with 9 other leaders in the presence of AITC national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP, Abhishek Banerjee. The representation of Congress is currently reduced to four in the Goa Vidhan Sabha, whereas in the last elections the party gained 17 members and emerged as the single largest party. TMC’s expansions in Goa, Tripura and Assam have all come at the expense of the Congress. TMC along with AAP have positioned themselves as “better alternatives to the BJP” than the Grand Old Party albeit their national credibility is yet to be tested to the fullest outside their citadels. The Gandhi siblings, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi – eager to assert their authority against the old guard – decision to back the mercurial skipper Sidhu over Captain Amarinder proved tragically detrimental as the Punjab unit has been left rudderless and yet to appoint a new chief with elections due to be held early next year. The latter had the last laugh with an “I told you so…he is not a stable man” twitter jibe.
The Gandhi siblings probably felt their involvement would settle the internal strife in the Congress and reinforce it ahead of next year’s Assembly polls. The Gandhi siblings themselves have failed to quell the struggles in different state divisions most notably in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Odisha and Kerala. Kerala unit’s infighting came into the open with an outbreak of resignations which included V.M. Sudheeran, K.P. Anil Kumar, P.S. Prasanth and recently PV Balachandran who were unhappy with the style of functioning of the new leadership headed by KPCC President K Sudhakaran and LoP V D Satheesan. One time rivals of the two factions within the Kerala Congress Oomen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala came together to voice their vexation for not being consulted in the selection process of 14 DCC chiefs by the troika of Sudhakaran, Satheesan and AICC general secretary, K.C. Venugopal.
In the recently concluded, West Bengal by-polls to Samserganj, the highly-magnified Bhawanipur, and Jangipur assembly seats the Grand old party decided not to contest for the latter two seats. Not putting up a candidate against Mamata Banerjee in Bhawanipur was understandable as the chances of not winning and definitely losing its deposits is extremely colossal. But, not fielding a candidate in the Jangipur seat has to surely go down as a massive blunder on the Grand Old Party’s West Bengal unit. Having been elected the most times since 1951 from the seat and securing 19.41% of the vote share in the 2016 State elections, the Congress decided to leave the seat for its Left ally, the RSP and its candidate Jane Alam Mian who secured only 4.5% of the vote share. Surely, a Congress candidate would have fared really well and would have boosted the demoralized morale of its supporters to prepare well for the next polls in the seat than the Left which has become nothing more than a spent force in West Bengal politics. Meanwhile, Murshidabad is the only district where the Congress has a viable presence with its leader in the lower house of the Parliament Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury representing the Berhampore constituency. If the slide isn’t arrested sooner then the chances of the party fading into oblivion are sky-high and the state might just become Congress mukth – a dream of both the BJP and TMC.
As Punjab bubbles, in other regions, where factions are busy fighting among themselves, the scenario is really no different. The main leadership’s weakness has led to the Congress’ breakdown. In contrast, the BJP with a strong central leadership has managed to tide over unrest effortlessly in Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. In less than a year these states witnessed a change of Chief Ministers (4 times) and cabinet without many entanglements. The Congress’ lack of vision has discouraged party supporters and workers inevitably, prompting many to seek viable solutions. More significantly, the party really hasn’t excelled in opposing the BJP with its style of Hindu nationalism in intellectual terms which has managed to capture the attention of the public.
(The writer is a graduate student from St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata)