Kolkata: The Indian National Congress, struggling for relevance in West Bengal, has launched a high-stakes organisational overhaul as top central leaders descended on Kolkata this week, hoping to revive the party and prepare a strategy for the pivotal 2026 Assembly elections. Yet, even amid renewed activity—intensive meetings, talent hunts, and outreach plans—persistent credibility challenges and internal divisions continue to cloud Congress’s prospects in a State where its support base has shrunk dramatically over the past decade.
The latest push began on September 11, with All India Congress Committee General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal holding a series of meetings with the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) in Kolkata.
Alongside Venugopal, leading figures such as Deepa Das Munshi, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Shakti Singh Gohil, and Pradeep Bhattacharya engaged with newly appointed State president Subhankar Sarkar and his reconstituted team.
Over five days, central leaders are meeting the 33 district presidents—the number expanded from 28 in Sarkar’s recent shake-up—to identify strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for rejuvenation.
“We need to accelerate work within the WBPCC. Bengal must gear up organisationally if Congress is to remain relevant in 2026,” Venugopal declared, signalling Delhi’s determination to guide the troubled State unit.
In a bid to attract new supporters and sharpen its message, the State Congress launched a ‘Media Talent Hunt’ this week, aiming to recruit spokespersons in Bengali, Hindi, English and Urdu by September 20.
The Pradesh Congress Election Committee, Executive Body, and Political Affairs Committee have initiated regular State-wide programmes to galvanise grassroots workers, with State spokesperson Ashok Bhattacharya describing the current meetings as “decisive “for shaping the poll plan.
On September 15, central youth leaders Nasir Hussain and Kanhaiya Kumar are scheduled to lead a rally at Kolkata’s historic Rammohun Hall, possibly inducting former Left stalwarts like Prasenjit Bose—part of an effort to reconnect with disaffected urban voters.
The following day, attention will shift to Thakurnagar in South Bengal, where Congress hopes to reach out to the influential Matua community through mass mobilisation.
Despite these ambitious efforts, credibility questions loom large. Congress’s presence in Bengal has shrunk from governing the State for decades to ending up with no Assembly seats and a vote share of just 3 percent in 2021—down from 14 percent in 2011, and further reduced to 4.6 percent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The party has seen nearly 70 MLAs and a sitting MP defect to TMC over the past ten years; the most recent Lok Sabha election delivered just one seat, as Congress-Left alliance partners faltered.
Three distinct ideological camps now contest Congress’s direction.
One, led by veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, favours sustaining the alliance with the PI(M)-led Left Front. Chowdhury argues the 2024 alliance allowed Congress to lead in 12 Assembly segments.
A second faction pushes for a rapprochement with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress—a proposition controversial given decades of rivalry and the view among many that forging alliances with TMC has cost Congress dearly in membership and voter loyalty.
A third camp, increasingly vocal, urges Congress to rebuild its base and contest alone, warning that perpetual alliances only weaken the party.
Former State president Pradip Bhattacharya echoed these concerns: “The Congress suffered because alliances helped our partners, not us. Increasing visibility and rediscovering our constituencies is the only way to even contemplate alliances or fighting solo.”
Sarkar, the incumbent president, agrees that alliance decisions must rest with the AICC, firmly prioritising grassroots rebuilding over mere electoral arithmetic.
The credibility gap is further complicated by the INDIA Opposition bloc, which nominally unites Congress, Left, and TMC nationally but perpetuates strategic ambiguity locally. While Congress has maintained an electoral understanding with the Left since 2016, national signals now indicate possible increased engagement with TMC—especially as Rahul Gandhi and central leaders engage in visible outreach.
The local Congress unit, still smarting from TMC’s alleged poaching and fractured seat-sharing talks that collapsed in December 2023, remains deeply divided. The rejection of TMC’s two-seat offer in the 2024 polls underscored the Bengal unit’s resistance toward reconciliation.
Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya connects Congress’s internal rifts to its demographic dilemma.
“The anti-Mamata stance of the State leadership clashes with the large minority-dominated vote base in Malda and Murshidabad, which is anti-BJP but looks for a strong alternative to TMC. Unless Congress resolves its contradictions, the credibility problem will grow.”
For now, Congress remains an organisation in transition, mixing optimism with existential anxiety. The current churn in leadership and grassroots outreach signals intent—but unless the party can overcome its image of perennial dissension, opportunistic alliances, and leaders’ desertions, winning back voters will be an uphill climb.
As the State’s political equations continue to shift—with TMC organizing its own massive reforms, BJP expanding its reach, and Left forces holding on—Congress must answer the toughest question: can it regain trust and reclaim relevance, or will credibility concerns once more cloud its prospects in Bengal’s fiercely contested political theatre?
The weeks and months ahead may yield new alliances, strategies, and faces in Bengal Congress, but for now, its ambition to revive is undercut by doubts that only a united, grassroots-driven campaign can dispel—if only it can find consensus and conviction before the polls.
