Five-state defeat puts Congress in disarray

By Abhijit Roy

If the voices of dissatisfaction start rising within the Congress after the results of the assembly elections of five states, then that cannot be called unnatural. No doubt that these election results are a setback for the party. The Congress barely won 55 seats in the elections held for a total of 690 assembly seats across five states. In UP, contesting on 403 seats, managed to secure just two. In Punjab, the party could not survive in front of the storm of Aam Aadmi Party. There was no such news from anywhere in Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, which would have given some satisfaction. Speaking on the debacle a prominent member of G-23 Ghulam Nabi Azad said that he cannot see the party dying like this. Even Shashi Tharoor, another member of G-23, also said that if the party wants to be successful, then changes are inevitable. Notwithstanding to mention that a couple of years back 23 senior Congress leaders wrote a letter to the party’s working president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, suggesting for organizational reforms. Though the party leadership, agreed to their suggestions and had also announced the intention of organizational elections, but due to Corona, that could not be implemented.

It is a fact that the party has lost its ground long back. Earlier it had its workers at the block, village panchayat level, who were always ready to help the local people. Now they are nowhere to be seen. Not even in the village. Hardly a few people are seen even at the district headquarters. Despite of these odds the central leadership still works out an in-principle strategy by sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi. They hardly bother to come down to work at the grassroots level. Therefore, the big question is what is going to happen in the name of deliberation and to what extent changes are going to be accepted within the party. Is the party going to be liberated from the leadership of the Gandhi family? However, making someone outside the Gandhi family as the national president does not guarantee that the influence of the Gandhi family in the party will end. The leadership of the party has gone into the hands of a person outside the Gandhi family many times in the past, but the party could not get out of the aura of this family. As such If the oldest party of the country has to avoid being buried in history, then it has to rejuvenate itself by making themselves relevant in today’s politics.

(Author is a columnist. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at abhijit@tatanagar.com)