In the Congress, in the last 20 years, efforts were made to increase the dependence on Gandhi family.
New Delhi: With Mohan Yadav being made the Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh and Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, it is once again being proved that the Bharatiya Janata Party understands and prepares for the long term political benefits of second line leadership at the national and state levels.
Similarly, once the leadership is decided in the states, i.e. the post of Chief Minister, the BJP tries to strengthen that person by giving full support during the tenure. It listens to the complaints of other party leaders against the CM and tries to resolve the differences. Strong leadership at the national and state level also benefits the states and the country in terms of socio-economic development.
On the other hand, in the other big national party, the Congress, far from allowing a second line leadership to grow much, there is an effort to weaken them at the central or the state level. Rahul Gandhi and his advisors have adopted a similar policy in the last 10 years, with leaders like Sachin Pilot, Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupendra Singh Hooda, due to which the party kept getting weakened.
The results of the Lok Sabha and various state elections held thereafter are proof that the long-term strategy of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is succeeding. The notion of some critics that second line leaders have not been prepared like in the Atal-Advani era is wrong. If in the Atal era Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh got opportunities to move forward, then in Narendra Modi’s tenure BJP has prepared the ground by giving more and more importance to leaders such as Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, Raman Singh, Devendra Fadnavis, Mohan Yadav, Bhajan Lal Sharma, Vishnudev Sai, Nayab Singh Saini. Nayab Singh Saini was prepared by Khattar, Vishnudev was prepared by Raman Singh. Mohan Yadav made a place in the Shivraj government and organization on the basis of his work. Now leaders like Mohan Yadav are becoming successful as grassroots leaders and sharp speakers and they also have a good grip on the administration.
In Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath is no longer an organization leader, as Chief Minister he has a strong control over law and order and as a Mahant he has made his identity in society on religious issues. He pays more attention to areas like Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura, Prayag, Kumbh etc. In Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma has become the Chief Minister after coming from Congress, but he has gained wide popularity by playing an important role in the development of the Northeast with the ideology of BJP and the path of development shown by the central leadership.
On the other hand, in the Congress party, during the last 20 years, more efforts were made to increase the dependence on the Gandhi family. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister at the Centre, but he neither had the image of a mass leader nor of an electoral winner. He lost one Lok Sabha election and then came only to the Rajya Sabha. He had no interest in the organization.
The Gandhi family encouraged the mutual rivalry of Arjun Singh, Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath, Madhavrao Scindia-Jyotiraditya, Ashok Gehlot, Rajesh Sachin Pilot, Bhupendra Singh Hooda, Virendra Singh, Kumari Selja etc., so that their roots do not become strong. In Uttar Pradesh, Congress has not been able to form its government for 30 years and the organization also kept on weakening. The old, honest leader, A.K. Antony, who gave the report on the party’s defeat, left the party in despair.
In Karnataka, the conflict between Siddaramaih and D.K. Shivakumar benefits the high command. Mallikarjun Kharge is the president, but the decisions are taken only by Rahul Gandhi and his close associates like Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh. Now Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also give more importance to her team. In Bihar and Jharkhand, they could certainly take some benefits of power by taking the support of Lalu Yadav and Shibu-Hemant Soren. Leaders of Rahul Gandhi’s generation like Milind Deora, R.P.N. Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia got disappointed with their sidelining and joined the BJP. Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Sachin Pilot are not allowed to grow beyond a limit. In regional parties, the top leader is everything.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress is dependent on Mamata Banerjee, in Bihar the Rashtriya Janata Dal is dependent on the Lalu-Tejaswi Yadav family, in Uttar Pradesh the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav or Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary or Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, in Tamil Nadu the DMK’s Stalin, in Andhra Pradesh the Telugu Desam’s Chandrababu Naidu, in Telangana the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is dependent on the Chandrashekhar Rao family, in Karnataka the Janata Dal Secular is dependent on the H.D. Devegowda-Kumaraswamy family, in Haryana the Lok Dal is dependent on the Chautala family, in Punjab the Akali Dal is dependent on the Badal family.
The Communist parties are on their last legs. From this point of view, the crisis of an alternative national level party in democracy does not seem to end anytime soon.