Experts believe that Rahul Gandhi will have to take some hard decisions to set things right.
NEW DELHI: There seems to be no end to Congress’ woes. After poll reverses in Bihar and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Congress has received another setback in Rajasthan rural elections where the BJP has scored a remarkable victory.
Congress’ defeat in Rajasthan rural areas, where the party has been on a strong footing, has triggered massive debate on the grand old party’s political future. Many say that the miserable performance of the Congress in the Rajasthan zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections has underlined the “factionalism rampant” within the organisation.
However, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has attributed the party’s bad performance to “the misleading” campaign by the opposition due to corona. He said that the state government’s priority was to fight coronavirus due to which it could not explain its other achievements to the rural population. The Gehlot government’s efforts to contain corona have been appreciated by the Central government as well.
But there is no denying that the electoral defeats have exposed Congress’ internal weaknesses. Experts believe that Congress former chief Rahul Gandhi will have to take some hard decisions to set things right. Several state Assembly elections are lined up prior to 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but what is apparent is that Rahul Gandhi is sort of not attaching importance to this fact. The weak leadership of the Congress is being seen as one of the major reasons behind the party’s abysmal performances.
Despite setbacks, the leadership is not ready to reconcile itself to the fact that organisation at the state and other levels need to be strengthened. Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi seems to be stopping short of exercising her authority, with the result that Rahul Gandhi is running the organisation the way he wants.
Moreover, Ahmed Patel’s death has created a void. No other leader is able to handle the party affairs like him.
There is no denying that most of Rahul Gandhi’s decisions have come a cropper. His decisions regarding organisational matters in the state did not yield any positive results. If the Congress leadership had settled the internal fight in MP timely, the party would not have lost power there. Similarly, the Rajasthan crisis is also seen as the result of leadership’s dillydallying in terms of setting certain issues in the state. As a result, the political rivals tried to repeat the MP formula in Rajasthan also. The government could be saved somehow by CM Gehlot, but the situation did not come under control. The situation is such that 14 out of 21 districts have been captured by the BJP and Congress could manage to get just five.
The BJP will not miss any opportunity to cash in on the existing weakness of the Congress. Gehlot has already expressed apprehension that there might be attempts to destabilise his government.
The fact-finding team of the Congress set up by the high command in July is not effective after the demise of Ahmed Patel who was the chairman of the panel. Now, there is not much hope from this panel. Workers are already not happy with Ajay Maken, who is general secretary in charge of Rajasthan Congress unit.
The party workers are complaining that Maken meets only selective leaders. Similar complaints used to be there when Maken was PCC chief in Delhi. If the high command had taken a firm decision to end infighting in the Rajasthan PCC, the party would not have lost in rural polls.
Rajasthan is the only big state which is in Congress’ kitty. The leadership does not seem to be taking the internal issues seriously there. Rahul Gandhi and his team could not make an appropriate assessment of the Bihar situation and it cost the party dearly. Similarly, Congress remained non-existent in GHMC polls, while the BJP did not spare any effort to win these polls. BJP national president J.P. Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah worked hard and paved the way for the saffron outfit making inroads into several Muslim dominated pockets in Hyderabad.
On the contrary, Rahul Gandhi remained inactive, leading to the party’s worst ever performance in GHMC. What is now to be seen is whether the Congress leadership learns its lessons from all this or not.