India’s grand old, oldest and at one time the largest political party Indian National Congress is dwindling since 2014 with the entry of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre. Several stalwarts and known Congress leaders have either been forced to quit the party or many of them have unilaterally decided to leave the ‘sinking ship’ and join other parties in search of greener pastures.
The latest one quitting the party is the veteran Congress leader and lawyer, who served the party for more than three decades Kapil Sibal.He received solace at Samajwadi Party’s door step which offered him a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. Recently leaders like Sunil Jakhar, the former Punjab Congress chief joined the Bharatiya Janata Party days after quitting. Last month, Congress had removed him from all positions for alleged anti-party activities. Jakhar said he decided to leave Congress over issues such as ‘nationalism’, ‘brotherhood’ and ‘unity’ in Punjab.
The list is long. Hardik Patel, a Patidar leader from poll bound Gujarat, Ripun Bora former Assam PCC chief quit the Congress party and joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in April, former Union minister Ashwani Kumar quit the Congress party in the middle of assembly polls in multiple states in February also, former Union minister RPN Singh switched to the BJP in January this year ahead of the elections in Uttar Pradesh.
RPN Singh was considered part of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s inner circle, and widely seen as a next-generation leader of the party along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora and Jitin Prasada. Scindia, now a Union Civil Aviation Cabinet Minister in the NDA government had joined the BJP in 2020, and Prasada, last year.
While the state of Gujarat which is a home turf of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Hardik Patel’s resignation from the Congress in the battle of perceptions, barely few months before the December assembly elections in Gujarat is undoubtedly a big setback for the Congress and a huge boost for the ruling BJP. Patel is the most recent addition to a long list of leaders and legislators who have quit the Congress post the 2017 assembly polls in the state. Those elections were the best fought by the Congress in Gujarat after being ousted from power 27 years ago in 1995. It was also Rahul Gandhi’s best election campaign by far as the BJP had to sweat it to barely cross the halfway mark winning 99 of the 182 seats in 2017.
Not for anyone surprise that for the BJP, Gujarat is a prestige issue. A loss in Gujarat, the home state of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, would have had a far-reaching impact for the ruling party and in the 2024 general election.
Even though Hardik Patel had backed the Congress in the 2017 assembly elections, he formally joined the party only months ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as a working president in Gujarat. Along with him, Rahul Gandhi was instrumental in the induction of firebrand backward caste leader Alpesh Thakor. While the Congress gave both of them a good deal in ticket distribution even at the cost of antagonising their own state leaders, both Patel and Thakor, who have since quit the Congress and played truant.
One of the major reasons for Patel to have left the Congress is that he wanted to lead the Gujarat Congress, and eventually be named as the party’s chief ministerial candidate but the central leadership refused to oblige him. He also felt side-lined during Rahul Gandhi’s May 12 visit to the state.
Senior BJP leaders since 2014 have realised that they want “Congress Mukt Bharat” (Congress Free India). In fact, BJP had to swallow the bitter pill of defeat under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2014 General Elections with “India Shining and Feel Good Factor” sloganeering. The BJP is in a belligerent mood and is taking all steps to ensure that in 2024, 2014 is not repeated, while Congress is still in a quagmire to arrange its house on order.
