By Kushal Jeena
The landmark changes that the Congress President Rahul Gandhi recently made in the Congress Working Committee CWC are an indicative of his plans to expose the next generation of party leadership to the functioning of apex decision making body and at the same time retaining old guards for their reliable advice and suggestions to be incorporated in the strategy being formulated to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party in the next year bound general elections.
The new–look Congress Working Committee held its first meeting on Sunday where Gandhi slammed BJP for spreading lies. The meeting that had no specific agenda for discussion was an extended one and was the first after Rahul Gandhi took to rein of the India’s grand old party from his mother Sonia Gandhi who ruled the party for 19 long years and was instrumental in the formation of United Progressive Alliance government at the centre that lasted for two consecutive terms. The meeting deliberated upon the poll debacles of past, prospective allies and upcoming political and electoral challenges before the party.
“The Working Committee was unanimous in saying that the momentum gained from the current set of elections would only be enhanced so that in the next set of elections Congress emerges victorious,” said Randeep Singh Surjewala, the spokesman of the party.
With the endorsement from plenary session of the All India Congress Committee that held in Delhi earlier this year that party would go all out to look for prospective allies to form a broader coalition of non-NDA parties to avert a split in the opposition votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the CWC assigned the party president to hold parleys with the leaders of the like-minded political parties to bring them on a common platform to defeat the right wing Hindu nationalist BJP.
The immediate task for the Congress party leaders is to gear up the party to wrest power from BJP in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, which are all set to go for polls later this year. Many surveys conducted so far have shown that the Congress party has better chances of winning the assembly elections in these states because the BJP governments have been facing strong anti-incumbency in all three states and the ruling party is in a direct contest with Congress. The Congress is still ready to rope in BSP in MP and Chhattisgarh as the party has certain voting percentage in some pockets in these two states. An alliance between the Congress and the BSP in these two states would certainly seal the fate of the ruling BJP as it would avert the split in opposition votes.
Knowing well that the party has lost its vast popular base in many states and is currently is in no position to lead the opposition attack from the front, it has changed its strategy and is now concentrating on the states where it is in direct fight with the BJP particularly in northern parts of the country where the ruling BJP reached at its peak winning maximum of seats in the previous Lok Sabha elections. The unity within the opposition parties in the upcoming assembly elections gives a clear edge to the Congress party and it could help party increase its strength in these states in the next year general elections.
The Congress is now willing to play a secondary role in the states where it has lost its mass base to the regional parties. Despite being the largest party among the opposition ranks, the Congress has said it has no reservation if any opposition leader having no-RSS background leads the opposition campaign against Modi and emerges as front runner for the office of the next Prime Minister of India.
Following a scathing attack that the Congress President launched against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government in Parliament while participating in debate on the no-trust motion earned him respect among the opposition parties in particular and masses in general. He is now being considered as a mature politician who is all set to step into his father’s shoes. It was evident when BSP supremo Mayawati and RJD leader Tejeswavi respectively sacked two of their senior party leaders for making anti Rahul statements. The newly earned respect would certainly help Gandhi scion to forge broader opposition alliance.
“You may call me Pappu, but I don’t hate you. You can abuse me, but I don’t have a speck of hatred against you. I will take out this hatred out of you and turn it into love. I am the Congress. You tought me what it means to be a Hindustani, what its mean to be Hindu. It means love somebody even if they attack you,” Gandhi said looking directly at Prime Minister and then walking across to embrace him. Rahul’s move stunned all and the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took strong exception to it.
“There is some decorum of the House. He (Modi) was sitting in the Prime Minister’s seat. I did not like it. Such conduct is against the rule of the House,” Mahajan responded.
The landmark decision of the last plenary of the Congress party that it would not stake claim for the office of the country’s executive head in case opposition muster magic number in the lower House of Parliament to unseat Modi and his government, has also raise the bar of credibility of the Congress that ruled India most of the time since it attained independence, among opposition because till yesterday the party was notorious for installing a non-Congress led opposition government and toppling it without any credible reason later. Things seem to have changed in the aftermath of assembly polls in Karnataka where despite having more number than the ruling JD (S) Congress offered the office of the chief minister to its junior partner and vowed to allow it to run for a full term.
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections are crucial for the future of Congress. If its strength reduces, the party would be written off from the political arena of India, after liberating the nation in 1947. It will go down in the history of the country, which seems not possible as the Modi led NDA government is not only losing its popularity among common masses but also reached to a point in the power politics from where it can’t go beyond. To remain irrelevant in Indian polity the Congress would have to increase it tally beyond 100 seats.
The grand old party has such chances as it is in direct fight with the BJP in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Assam, Karnataka and Goa that accounts for 187 seats and the BJP currently holds majority of Parliamentary seats in these states. At present, the Congress party has lost foothold in almost 300 seats. The party has the chances to improve its strength in these 300 seats to remain in the reckoning.
“It is not the first time that Congress party has passed through a bad phase, but it has always fought back and came out with flying colour every time the party was written off for the simple reason it is the only party that still has a pan-India support base, which makes it different from other parties,” said Harish Rawat, the newly appointed Congress general secretary and a member of the Congress Working Committee.
Ends.
