Outlook – July 06, 2019

continuum of the past five years. And,

this is where the Congress’ sustained

inertia and the abyss of hopelessness

that the electoral debacle has plunged

it into are most visible. “We have

assembly polls coming up but there is

no clarity on who will lead the party.

We should have hit the streets running

after the Lok Sabha drubbing to show

that we are prepared for the battles

ahead but our president has shut

himself in a room, adamant on aban-

doning ship,” a senior Congress leader

from poll-bound Maharashtra con-

fessed to Outlook.

Soon after the Lok Sabha defeat, the

Congress Working Committee had

met, as was expected, to assess the

reasons for the rout. State units had

been told to do the same and apprise

the central leadership of corrective

measures taken. Party general secre-

tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s pointed

accusation that Congress workers

didn’t work hard to win the election—

Rahul lost his family seat of Amethi—

has only caused more heartburn in

the few cadres that remain. Sources

say several party leaders in Uttar

Pradesh are now in touch with the

BJP, waiting to defect. There are stray

signals of a revamp—the dissolution

of the Karnataka Congress unit and

the district committees in UP, for

instance—but none that show the

party’s resolve to beat the trauma of

its decimation.

Instead, the weeks gone by have seen

the grand old party’s typical ego battles

come to the fore again. In Madhya

Pradesh, chief minister Kamal Nath,

whose government has a wafer-thin

majority, is publicly being held

responsible for the party’s poll rout by

loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia. The

brinkmanship between Rajasthan chief

minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy,

Sachin Pilot, is a daily affair. Pilot has

now begun a statewide yatra which

many believe is his way of asserting that

he is the more popular leader.

In poll-bound Maharashtra and

Haryana, sources say, infighting

between rival camps has made the BJP

hopeful of poaching more Congress

leaders while in Karnataka, Sidda-

ramaiah continues to rile his party

colleagues, keeping alliance partner

JD (S) and chief minister H.D. Kumara-

swamy on notice.

T

HE fault lines are even more wor-

risome at the central level, with

the Congress once again divided

between the old guard loyal to

Sonia and those who were handpicked

by Rahul to run the affairs of his

office and the party. These squab-

bles, sources say, were responsible

for the numerous media reports that

surfaced over the past week accusing

Rahul-confidante and the party’s data

analytics department head, Praveen

Chakravarty, of being “a BJP mole in

the Congress”. Chakravarty has also

been accused as the man who “misled

Rahul about the party’s prospects in

the elections”.

The CWC is expected to meet again

in the coming week to, once again,

urge Rahul to stay put. However,

assuming that Rahul won’t budge,

sources say, multiple options are

already under consideration—includ-

ing setting up a college of working

presidents and establishing a parlia-

mentary board that would take key

decisions related to the functioning of

the Congress.

In December 2017, when Rahul took

over as Congress president, Sonia had

famously told media persons that “my

role now is to retire”. But the debacle

of the Rahul-led 2019 campaign has

forced his mother to defer her plans.

The matriarch, Congress sources say,

has once again assumed command.

For Sonia, the crisis that her party is

faced with is familiar, though way

more enhanced. She had first become

party president in 1997 when the

Congress footprint was shrinking and

showed that she had the mettle needed

to steer the party back to power. This

time round, the footprint isn’t just

shrinking, it is on the brink of invisi-

bility. The catalyst for this erosion

isn’t just her own party but the politi-

cally ruthless Narendra Modi-Amit

Shah duo—their dream of a Congress-

mukt (free) Bharat still unfulfilled.

Whether Rahul stays on as Congress

president or goes may yet be a tough

question to answer but Congress

sources say Sonia is again the leader to

watch out for. The future course of the

party, insiders say, will be chalked out

by her. But will it ensure the party’s

revival once again? It’s a tough ask as

India 2019 is a different country. O

After the LS debacle,

Congress leaders’ ego

battles have come to the

fore in states as well as

at the central level.

POST-MORTEM The Congress

Working Committee met in New

Delhi after the electoral rout

24 OUTLOOK 8 July 2019

EMPTY HANDS

PTI