The Congress is facing perhaps one of its worst crises ever and the problems lie within. From openly disregarding the top leadership by several senior leaders to questioning the absence of a cohesive structure at the top, to infighting in at least four state cadres, incessant clashes can ruin the party’s chances of fighting for victory. Used to be. 2024, and giving it little time for anything else.
It began in 2019 when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post of party president citing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, returned to power for the second time. Two years later, the party is yet to decide on a replacement, with Sonia Gandhi holding the interim charge.
Congress’ footprint has been shrinking since 2014, when Modi came to power for the first time. The Congress is currently in power in six states, but has its own chief ministers in only three – Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. In Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the party is just a junior alliance partner.
Kerala may be one of the newest in the party’s infighting after veteran Congress leader and former KPCC general secretary KP Anil Kumar resigned on Tuesday. Currently, the Congress is facing rebellion in three other states – Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
“I am ending my 43-year-old relationship with the Congress party,” Kumar told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram. He said that though he had submitted his explanation after the party’s action against him last month, the suspension is yet to be revoked. Soon after the leader announced his resignation, KPCC chief K Sudhakaran issued a press note saying Kumar had been expelled from the primary membership of the party.
The Congress in Kerala had “temporarily suspended” Anil Kumar along with former MLA K Sivadasan Nair for publicly expressing displeasure over the AICC’s selection of district chiefs of the party in the state.
G-23: The first visible crack
In August last year, 23 stalwarts of the Gandhi family and some of the party’s most powerful faces wrote a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, asking her for a “comprehensive change” in the party. The list includes five former chief ministers, sitting MPs Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, members of the Congress Working Committee and over a dozen former Union ministers who have years of political experience.
In the letter, the letter called for an “institutional leadership mechanism” aimed at full-time and effective leadership, visible and active in the region, elections to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the revival of the party. The signatories also wrote that the party’s revival was inevitable at a time when “the country is facing the most serious political, social and economic challenges since independence”.
In another public display of discontent in February, G-23 leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal publicly vented their anger ahead of assembly elections in Kerala and Assam. West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry said, “The party is weakening and they have come together to strengthen it.”
“This is an opportunity to speak the truth and I will speak the truth. Why have we gathered here? The fact is that we can see that the Congress is getting weaker. We had gathered earlier also and together we have to strengthen the Congress,” Sibal said while addressing an event dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in Jammu.
Azad, one of the outspoken letter-writers, was not given his nomination again after his term in the Rajya Sabha ended.
Punjab: The Sticky Wicket
In Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu did not miss any opportunity to confront Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh despite repeated pleas by the party high command and state in-charge Harish Rawat. The two leaders have had a bad relationship for a long time and their differences came to the fore when Sidhu was invited by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for his swearing-in ceremony in August 2018. Despite opposition from Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Sidhu went to Pakistan and also hugged the country’s army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa when the latter spoke about Islamabad’s intention to open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor for Sikh pilgrims.
Also in 2019, Sidhu had blamed Singh as his wife was denied a Lok Sabha ticket from Chandigarh. The chief minister had denied the allegation.
Tension between the CM and Sidhu escalated in April this year after the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected the inquiry report into the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident. Sidhu had attacked the CM through his tweet on the issue of alleged delay in justice in incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing in 2015. The Amritsar MLA had resigned as a minister in 2019 after being dropped from his local bodies department. Sidhu had left the BJP and joined the Congress before the 2017 assembly elections.
Rajasthan: A choppy ride
The cold war between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his now-sacked deputy Sachin Pilot began with the Congress choosing Gehlot as Pilot for the chief minister’s post after the 2018 assembly elections. Pilot’s supporters said he deserved credit for the party’s victory after campaigning as the party’s state unit chief. Pilot was removed from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and state party chief by the Congress in July last year after the Congress rebelled against Gehlot, and the Rajasthan speaker sent disqualification notices to him and 18 other MLAs after he served two Congress legislatures. Had violated a party whip for participating in. party meetings. However, fearing a nuisance like Jyotiraditya Scindia in Rajasthan, he was groomed enough by the party high command to remain in the party. Scindia, along with 20 of his loyal MLAs, toppled the Kamal Nath government last year by leapfrogging the BJP.
Pilot has so far maintained a respectable position in public acknowledging his role in the state after his sacking as deputy CM, but his patience has been tested as deliberations by the party last nearly two months. No action has been taken as a result of the cabinet reshuffle. He has been demanding that his loyalists be inducted into the Rajasthan cabinet before the assembly session begins in the state, but Gehlot is in no mood to relent despite several public demonstrations and assurances of ‘sorry and forget’.
Chhattisgarh: 50-50 options
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Health Minister TS Singh Deo were called to Delhi by the Congress high command late last month, where the two were asked to put aside their differences and do it soon. Speculation was going on in the political corridors of Chhattisgarh that this meeting is on the discussion on the alleged two-and-a-half year formula of the CM.
Dev claimed that according to the agreement reached after the Congress came to power in Chhattisgarh in 2018, he should have got the chief minister’s post after two and a half years. Bhagel had denied this claim. Sources say that this has been a major reason for the growing rift between the two leaders. Weeks ago, Dev had criticized the Baghel government’s plan to involve private players to boost healthcare in the state, saying he was not consulted on the matter.
The Chhattisgarh Congress ran into another crisis in August when MLA Brahspat Singh accused Dev of plotting to kill him after an attack on his convoy. A distraught Dev had come out of the assembly and the matter was settled only after the intervention of senior leaders.
When the Health Minister inaugurated the Rajiv Bhawan, the party office in Surguja, the party sparred again and Food Minister Amarjit Bhagat cut the ribbon and re-inaugurated the premises. There was also a fight between the supporters of both the leaders.
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