The Congress is yet to come in terms with the rude shock the electorate gave to the party in the five States. The party will soon assess the reasons for the debacles at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which will be held very soon. Leaders in both the Congress camps those among the family loyalists and in G-23, are worried and says things should not be allowed to continue in the present manner, otherwise party would “face the same fate of Janata Dal” very soon.
There are are two issues that the Congress has to immediately resolve. One is the question on its own leadership. The party hopes to solve this after the organisational elections which is on track now. The membership drive of the party will be completed by March 31. The organisational elections at the booth level will be held in April.
The party will elect a new president by September. But will Rahul Gandhi come back to the to post? Not likely, says a senior Congress leader.
“Gandhi feels that a set of about 50 Congress leaders give no value to the issues he raise against the present Government and against the general policy framework in the country. They have no issues with Rahul Gandhi, but they have problems with the kind of politics Rahul Gandhi has,” the senior leader from the family loyalists’ camp said.
The another view is that the family has been making mistakes over mistakes at the electoral front. “When everyone wanted Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to focus in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa, where the Congress had better chances than in Uttar Pradesh, our best campaigners were camping in Uttar Pradesh. This was a great disservice to the party,” a senior member in the G-23 camp said.
He added that a proper election of the leadership and collective decision making process may help the Congress to reinvent itself. The G-23 leaders will meet in a day or two to decide their next step.
Another issue the Congress leadership confronts is the position of the party among the Opposition camp. Of late, leaders such as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had tried to reach out to the Opposition for joint efforts. Though Banerjee said she will cooperate with the Congress, the Trinamool Congress created problems for the Congress in recent elections too. “But we do not think there can be unity of opposition without the Congress. Other parties also know this. We will continue to take joint efforts against the BJP at the national level,” a Congress leader said.
Published on
March 11, 2022