Infighting blights chances of Congress recovery

As opposition parties are making sporadic efforts to mount a combined challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Congress, the largest of them, is sharply divided at national as well as regional levels.

Failure to resolve the internal issues speedily and amicably is sure to hamper its ability to play its legitimate role in the emerging national scenario.

From the time the Congress spearheaded the freedom movement, power within the organisation was in the hands of a small group, referred to as the High Command. Initially it comprised of the top leaders who were nominated as members of the working committee.

After Independence the party constitution was amended to provide for election of one-third of the committee’s members. However, the provision soon fell into disuse.    

After Prime Minister Indira Gandhi broke with the state party bosses who attempted to control her, she became the High Command of the party faction she inherited.    

On Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the Nehru-Gandhi family offered no member to head the party. In 1998, as the party faced the prospect of a split, at the request of its leaders, Rajiv Gandhi’s wife, Sonia agreed to be party President. She handed over the post to her son, Rahul Gandhi ahead of the 2019 elections. . She took the post again when he quit owning responsibility for the party’s poor poll performance.  

Initially, Sonia, like Indira Gandhi, worked with a handpicked team. Later the family emerged as the High Command.

A year ago 23 party leaders, several of them former favourites of the family, wrote to Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational elections.  The High Command did not quite like it. One of the 23 has since quit the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The issue could have been settled quickly by talking to the group. After all they only raised a legitimate demand.

It is still not too late to talk to them, especially since Rahul Gandhi himself reportedly wants to be elected as party President, and not nominated.

While the issue of inner-party democracy is hanging fire, groupism has raised its ugly head in several states, including those where the party is in power.

In Punjab, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has raised the banner of revolt against Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who had led the party to power five years ago, beating the powerful Akali Dal-BJP alliance.

Both Amarinder Singh and Sidhu came to politics with celebrity status. The former is the son of the last Maharaja of Patiala. The latter was a Test cricketer.  

There has been a steady flow of leaders from the Congress to the BJP in many states in recent years. Sidhu travelled in the opposite direction. He was a BJP MP before he joined the Congress in 2017.

 When Sidhu showed signs of restlessness the High Command made him state party chief. Amarinder Singh and his supporters view Sidhu’s recent tweets critical of the government as an indication that he has his eyes on the Chief Minister’s chair.

The public spat between the two may prove costly to the party in the Assembly elections due early next year.

In Chhattisgarh, where too the Congress is in power, Health Minister TS Singh Deo wants Chief Minister Bhupesh Bagel to step down in his favour. He claims when Bagel was made Chief Minister there was an understanding that he would hold office for half the term and then yield the post to him.  

If there was such an understanding the High Command must step in and ensure that it is honoured.

There is disquiet in the party in Rajasthan too.  Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot reportedly plans to contain disaffection by expanding the Cabinet.

In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front had to concede a second successive term to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government in this year’s Assembly elections. For decades, the state party has had two factions. The High Command is trying to use current state of despondency to end factionalism.  

It recently picked a new state legislature party leader, a new state party chief and new district party chiefs against the wishes of the faction leaders.

The Congress party’s ills cannot be cured merely by changing leaders. The organisation needs to be re-branded to enhance its appeal. It must let a set of young leaders come up through organisational elections.