Bharatiya Janata Party led NDA put up a splendid show in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and it left the oldest political outfit, the Congress, nursing its deep wounds. The party that was aspiring to be sitting in the king-maker position before the exit poll verdicts came out was reduced to such a situation that it is not even in the position to demand to be the ‘Leader of the Opposition’. As it was expected, the blame of the Congress debacle came squarely on the party president Rahul Gandhi who, in return, threw his papers and closed his doors on his closest lieutenants also. Now, over three weeks have passed, but neither Rahul nor anyone else is coming forward to take over the party. As a result, the party is in a serious mess due to the ‘leaderless’ situation.
On the other hand, Rahul is still dithering over his status with the Congress after he said, on May 25, that he was quitting as its president over the party’s massive washout. The Congress responded “no way” and a few leaders have tried in person to persuade him to reverse his claim. Since then, it’s unclear whether Gandhi is in or out — or temping till his replacement is decided.
Dissidence all over
The uncertainty is confounding, given that it is pushing state units of the Congress all over the country into imploding. In Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, vicious factionalism is in circulation and resulting, in Telangana, for example, in the exodus of leaders, on Thursday, 12 of 18 MLAs strode out of the Congress and into the arms of KCR. Through all this, Gandhi is refusing to meet leaders to explain either his position or how they should address the dizzying advancement of crises.
Rahul’s high-risk behaviour follows his outburst at the Congress Working Committee that convened to dissect the party’s unmitigated flop in the election. He said that senior leaders, alluding clearly to Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and P Chidambaram, had focused on their sons’ elections, putting their paternal bonds above the party’s needs. Gehlot is now caught up in a new episode of his lengthy drama with Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. He remarks as state unit chief, Pilot should have ensured his son Vaibhav Gehlot’s victory from Jodhpur (Gehlot Junior lost by 2.7 lakh votes). Pilot’s camp, meanwhile, which believes he should have been made Chief Minister, is using the Congress’ result in Rajasthan — zero of 25 seats — to claim it’s time for him to take charge of the state. Pilot is the only heirloom leader who actually buckled down and worked as state chief for five years and ensured a Congress victory in the Rajasthan assembly elections in December. Sources say that he never reconciled to Gehlot being picked over him as the Chief Minister and is now considering quitting his post as Deputy Chief Minister. If he goes ahead with this, he will say he’s taking the blame for the Lok Sabha results and begin a voter connect road-show.
Punjab is also unrestful these days. The bordering state that has been a lone bastion of the Congress is also going the rebellion way. The state chief minister Amarinder Singh has been urging Rahul to act against Navjot Singh Sidhu who has made it a habit to speak against him. With Rahul refusing to bestow an answer, Singh called a cabinet meet yesterday: which Sidhu skipped; Singh changed portfolios, downgrading Sidhu’s. Sources say that Sidhu had tried to contact Rahul before a public meltdown where he said he is a performer who delivers and cannot be taken for granted. Singh, who has a frosty relationship with Rahul, has timed his ambush well — he delivered a decent Lok Sabha result in Punjab defying the general rejection of the Congress. It’s Sonia Gandhi who has reportedly persuaded Singh to keep Sidhu in his cabinet for now.
In the neighbouring Haryana, where at a meeting to figure out why the Congress won no seats at all, leaders nearly physically attacked each other and Ghulam Nabi Azad, deputed to handle the state, walked out in disgust. It presented a sorry picture about the erstwhile ruling party, now on the verge of disappearance.
Digvijaya vs Jyotiraditya
In Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath’s government is in jeopardy with the BJP circling it with plans of a takedown. As he tries to fight back, rivals Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh want him removed as state chief. Scindia is particularly bitter as he lost his family fiefdom, Guna, and now wants to be state chief. But Digvijaya Singh, who lost the Bhopal election, wants to ensure that Scindia is not made state chief and has bonded with Kamal Nath for the limited purpose of keeping his enemy at bay. The situation is such where two of the party stalwarts — both unsuccessful in winning their respective seats — are now fighting for supremacy in the party instead of working to strengthen it.
As many state units going off the rails, Sonia Gandhi interceded on Thursday and asked all state chiefs and candidates to give a written assessment of why they lost. The feuding leaders also see this as an opportunity to settle scores in writing. Sources say that Gandhi’s resignation offer was intended to trigger off a ‘Kamraj Plan-2’ which would embarrass the leaders he spoke against into resigning. That didn’t happen but Gandhi was told he has a free hand to restructure the party in any way that he sees fit. The fact that he continues to sulk after that has mystified the party.
Enough is enough in the party, now. This is the time when the party leadership and followers should show that they can run the party effectively with or without the active or inactive leadership of the Gandhis. If the party has to rise from the ashes, the time is running out fast.
The writer is a political analyst and former Member of Parliament (RS).
-Bharatkumar Raut
