Can Congress recover amid restless scions, Rahul Gandhis risky political bets, and Mallikarjun Kharges weak hand?
/ 08:18 AM IST
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge (left) and Rahul Gandhi.
Former defence minister AK Antony's son Anil Antony's exit may not be a big loss for the Congress for he was no rooted leader who had risen through the ranks, but it certainly is indicative of the growing restlessness among the scions of prominent political families over their future.
Team Rahuls Disintegration
Prior to Anil Antony, some of the much-feted 'Gen-Next' of the Congress and close aides of Rahul Gandhi such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh had jumped ship to explore opportunities even in ideologically opposite political turf.
Sushmita Dev, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ashok Tanwar and Jaiveer Shergill had also left in search of better career prospects in politics. These young leaders were convinced that the revival of the Congress is not possible in the foreseeable future. They clearly lacked faith in the leadership of Rahul Gandhi who was otherwise instrumental in their exceptional rise in the Congress.
The nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra has brought about a major change in Rahul Gandhi's image and perception, but that doesn't mean the exodus will stop. That will happen only when the Congress starts winning elections. A victory in Karnataka will enthuse the Congress cadre and its supporters ahead of the assembly elections in five states, billed as semi-finals, before the grand finale in 2024.
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Kharge Versus Rahuls Coterie
For now, Rahul Gandhi has completely disassociated from organisational matters. He hardly meets party leaders and workers. In fact, he directs them to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge if they want to talk about organisational changes.
However, the coterie around him continues to rule the roost and dominate the party affairs to the extent of undermining Kharge's authority as the party boss. The continued interference of Rahul Gandhi's Man Friday and Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal in party matters appears to have rubbed Kharge the wrong way.
Many Congress leaders and workers are unhappy with Venugopal over his style of functioning and the way he controls access to Rahul Gandhi. It is well-known in Congress circles that the emergence of the group of 23 dissenters, known as G-23, was largely due to centralisation of power with Venugopal.
To ensure Kharge's writ runs large in the Congress and dispel the notion that he is merely a puppet or a rubber stamp, Rahul Gandhi needs to rein in Venugopal.
An ongoing tussle between Kharge and Venugopal is also said to be the main reason for the delay in the much-awaited organisational reshuffle and constitution of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, given that it is over a month now since the three-day 85th plenary session was held in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur in February last week. The session ratified Kharge's election as the Congress president and paved the way for him to carry out the reshuffle exercise in the party.
Anti-Corruption Obsession
That said, Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra also helped the Congress party to reconnect with the masses. As a result, the Adani issue, especially in the context of investing public money in the group, raised by Gandhi is getting good traction for the party, particularly among the middle class and in rural areas.
Congress leaders want to keep the focus on this issue till the Lok Sabha elections next year. According to them, Rahul Gandhi's harping on who had invested Rs 20,000 crore in alleged shell companies of the Adani Group was resonating with the people across the country.
Perhaps the Congress was of the same opinion in the Rafale case before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the fighter jet deal with France.
But It Flopped In 2019
The slogan Chowkidar Chor Hai (Watchman is a thief) was his main campaign plank in the 2018 assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The Congress partys victory over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in these three states encouraged Rahul Gandhi to take the slogan to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
However, the BJP launched a slogan Main Bhi Chowkidar (I am a watchman too) to counter Rahul Gandhis jibe at Modi. The then Congress president was going all guns blazing till he, in the middle of the high-voltage campaigning, tendered an apology to the Supreme Court for his remarks that the apex court had agreed with his comment Chowkidar Chor Hai, in the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. The impression among the people was that Rahul Gandhi had apologised for his remarks that there was alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. The BJP used it effectively to its advantage.
This was followed by a terror attack at Pulwama in Kashmir on February 14, 2019. At least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in the deadly attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Twelve days later, on February 26, India responded with air strikes on JeM terror camps in Balakot across the Line of Control (LoC). The rest, as they say, is history.
Aurangzeb Naqshbandi is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
Aurangzeb Naqshbandi
is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory.
Tags:
#Congress #India #Mallikarjun Kharge #opinion #Politics #Rahul Gandhi
first published: Apr 10, 2023 08:18 am
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