A section of leaders in the Congress does have reservations about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and the raging discourse regarding family control over the party. Some political observers have also launched a campaign to suggest that the idea of India cannot be subjugated to one family. But that’s not what the truth of the Congress is. Congress workers across the country are deeply worried about the possibility of Rahul Gandhi not returning as president. Their only hope in that case is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. It is difficult to find one party worker who suggests the names of other people for the role of party leader even as they acknowledge their importance in the party.
Talk to any worker — be it from Gujarat, Bihar, Delhi or Madhya Pradesh — they are all praying for the leadership to remain within the family. They have no concerns whatsoever about the dynasty debate. Almost all of them believe the party will disintegrate if somebody else is made the Congress chief, although some are not averse to the experiment of Rahul Gandhi’s central role as the face of the party while some senior leader looks after the organization. But they are not amenable to any scheme without the centrality of the family. They vociferously criticize senior leaders who see the family as a burden, and are not ready to rid themselves of the belief that only Rahul or Priyanka have the charisma to revive the party with their pan-India appeal. This sentiment is not rejected fully by a majority of senior leaders, even those who are sceptical about Rahul’s leadership skills, and would prefer a collective leadership mechanism under the patronage of the family. The next few weeks are indeed critical for the Grand Old Party, which has witnessed countless upheavals in its long life.
Aim to please
Politicians are known for changing their tune, but the Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has surprised many in the Bharatiya Janata Party. The adjectives that the veteran leader has been using these days to hail the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has amused many old timers of the saffron party. On Friday, while welcoming the PM to address a farmers’ convention in his state, Chouhan called Modi “hriday ke haar” or “the necklace of my heart”.
This was surprising, since the fourth-term CM had been known to be a competitor to Modi ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Not only was he a three-term CM at the time like Modi, but was seen as a more widely acceptable face to lead the party nationally. He used to wear a skull cap and hold iftaar parties. Unlike Modi in Gujarat, Shivraj had a cordial relationship with the Muslim community in his state. Gone are those days now. Sadly, Chouhan now is trying to follow Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh CM, who is junior to him. The Madhya Pradesh government recently declared it will pass a law against ‘love jihad’, imitating what Adityanath did in his state. Currently, with the Central government in a difficult spot over the intensifying farmers protest, every CM from the BJP is in a race to please Modi. They are organizing farmers’ conventions to show big support for the new farm laws. Chouhan does not want to be left behind lest he gets edged out.
Hidden away
Resort politics is being witnessed in Assam after the outcome of the Bodoland Territorial Council election, where a post-poll alliance of the BJP, the United People’s Party Liberal and the Gana Suraksha Party, with 22 seats, came together to keep the Bodoland People’s Front — the single-largest party with 17 seats — at bay in the 40-member house. As the anti-defection law does not apply to Sixth Schedule areas, the elected members of the three-party alliance have reportedly been kept in a hotel in Guwahati — it is around 226 kilometres away from the BTC headquarters in Kokrajhar — since the results came out on December 12, for fear of defection. The BPF, too, is said to have kept its members in Kokrajhar and a few in a hotel in Phuentsholing, a border town in south Bhutan, about 138 km from Kokrajhar. The alliance rank has swelled to 24 with the lone Congress member and a BPF member switching sides, but they are still seen travelling between Kokrajhar and Guwahati.
The development, however, has exposed the insecurities of the BJP even though it is the ruling party in the state, kingmaker in the BTC and host to the BTC members in Guwahati. Losing the BTC after pulling out all stops to unseat the BPF will be more than embarrassing for the BJP before next year’s state polls. The Gauhati High Court directive to the elected members to maintain status quo till December 22 — when it will hear a BPF plea challenging the formation of the council — is only going to add to its insecurities. For the BPF, which had ruled the BTC since 2003 and which still considers itself an ally of the BJP in the state government, has not given up yet, matching BJP in muscle and money power — besides, of course, resort politics.
New blood
At a time when the BJP enjoys a clear edge in attracting leaders from Opposition parties, it would be wrong to conclude that the Congress has lost its charm. Just when the Congress needed some young blood, its Karnataka state president, DK Shivakumar, held discussions with the independent member of the legislative assembly, Sharath Bache Gowda, the son of the BJP parliamentarian, BN Bache Gowda, who is set to join the party. After rebelling against the BJP, Sharath had contested and won as an independent candidate in the 2019 bypolls. The BJP had promptly sacked him. Now that the state is set for panchayat polls, Sharath’s arrival is expected to energize the youth in the Congress. As a party chief who wants to prove his mettle after losing the recent bypolls, Shivakumar is trying to inject new blood.
Footnote
One veteran that the Congress is missing in Kerala is AK Antony. Considered a clever tactician, the leader, who enjoys a rapport with the high command, has been out of action, and perhaps out of sync with the current crop of leaders in the state. The debacle in the local body polls is expected to send many to the doorstep of the diminutive Antony to realign the party. He still commands respect as someone who can bridge the gap between warring factions ahead of the state polls next summer.
