Grand old party plans to go it alone for all electoral battles.
New Delhi: There are indications that the Congress is getting ready to go it alone for electoral and political battles. However, the party is steering clear of announcing it publicly. The grand old party has made up its mind to fight on its own in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The party decided to sever its ties with the Mahagathbandhan recently, which means that the Congress will be without any ally in Bihar during the Lok Sabha election of 2024. Similarly, the Congress is ready to go it alone in the Assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh early next year. Undeniably, what has been observed is that the Congress remained isolated in the Opposition camp for quite some time. Rahul Gandhi’s bid to unite the Opposition could not yield any positive result. Similarly, Opposition parties ignored Sonia Gandhi’s call to unitedly hold agitation against the Modi government.
Now, the Congress is going to hit the streets on its own. The party will launch the Jan Jagran campaign from 14 November, the birth anniversary of Jawahar Lal Nehru. The campaign to be launched from urban to rural regions of the country will be focused on the issues of price rise, farmers’ problems, unemployment, etc. This campaign will last till 29 November when the winter session of Parliament will commence. This will be the first attempt by the Congress in the last seven years to build a big movement against the Modi government.
But before the beginning of the campaign, Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Salman Khurshid and Rashid Alvi gave the BJP a much-needed chance to push polarization politics by raising the issue of Hindutva. With this in view, it is only in the womb of the future whether the campaign becomes successful or not. However, all the experienced leaders have been given responsibilities for the campaign. The committee to prepare the strategy is being led by senior leader Digvijaya Singh. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K.C. Venugopal will be monitoring the working of the committee. Congress is said to be assessing its functioning, given the changing political situation in the country. A series of defeats have led to the Opposition distancing itself from Congress. Needless to say that the Congress alliance in Maharashtra is in place under compulsion.
Some state leaders of Congress issue statements from time to time, hinting at leaving the alliance. There is no good news about Congress’ old ally NCP as well. The party is disillusioned with RJD in Bihar. TMC leader and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s politics is said to be harmful for Congress. TMC caused material damage to Congress in north east and Goa. The Bengal party is in search of a big leader for the Hindi belt. For this, Prashant Kishor is trying to contact the leaders who are unhappy with Congress and BJP.
Sources say that as part of this, Kishor is keeping an eye on senior Congress leader Meira Kumar also. TMC had offered her Rajya Sabha seat at one point of time but things did not go that way because of Rahul Gandhi. Now, it is learnt that Meira Kumar has been assured a Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan. With several seats of Rajya Sabha falling vacant next year, the Congress is moving cautiously to keep its house intact. But the party is finding it difficult to stop the defection. The situation in Bihar, UP and Gujarat is no secret. MP is also said to be going that way, where BJP is trying to induct all the leaders barring Kamal Nath and Digvijaya. After Jyotiraditya Scindia’s entry into BJP, defection from Congress continues. If this continues, the Congress will be left with just a few leaders.
With BJP already a threat to Congress, now TMC has also become another problem for the grand old party. Congress’ allies have a problem with Rahul Gandhi, saying that he takes all decisions on his own.
This is also the reason why old guards are at loggerheads with the young leaders. Rahul Gandhi and his loyalists have realized that now this behaviour is not going to help in any way. Several electoral reverses have weakened the party. With this in view, the Congress is preparing to fight on its own. The party will be strengthened if it really goes it alone in various states in order to improve itself.