In 2017, when things seemed to be going well for the Congress, Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks calling the Prime Minister a ‘neech aadmi’ became a turning moment for the grand old party. It gave a clear edge to BJP and PM Narendra Modi Used barb to indicate that an entitled Congress mocked a person from a humble background and attacked them.
Barring a few exceptions, the Congress learned its lesson from the incident. Realizing that any personal attack on the Prime Minister would backfire, he tried to refrain from making such remarks.
In the name of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, it seems that the party, which is now running in election mode, has applied the lessons learned from its experience. At a rally in Banaskantha, a tribal area in Gujarat, Kharge said: “The prime minister always says he is poor. I am the poorest of the poor Kharge. I come from untouchables… Koi tera to peeta tha [PM Modi’s] Tea… No one even drinks my tea. You (Modi) say I am poor, someone abuses me, ‘Meri aukat kya hai’… If you are trying to gain sympathy of people, people are not fools. They’re very smart.”
Congress sources say there is a reason why the party unseated Kharge at the end of an otherwise lackluster campaign in electoral Gujarat. According to the party, he ticks the right boxes and can help with damage control. He can also help manage the perception that the Gandhi family is entitled and that the party has lost touch with the poor.
Kharge also strategically chose the location of his speech – Banaskantha is a tribal area that is somewhat of a Congress bastion.
It is not just Kharge’s Dalit background that the Congress hopes will work in its favour. More importantly, having someone who rose from the ranks – beginning as a labor union leader – the Congress hopes Kharge can be a match for Modi’s humble origins. In fact, sources say it hopes to play the ‘who is more polite’ card in several state elections culminating in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Coupled with Rahul Gandhi’s ‘image makeover’ after the Bharat Jodo Yatra, it is expected to work for the beleaguered party.
However, elections are not won on image cultivation alone. This needs to be backed by smart strategy and strong organization – areas where the BJP has an edge.
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