Post the recent debacle of the grand old party Indian National Congress during the Assembly Elections some senior Congress leaders felt the need to meet and discuss the future course of action to ‘save the party’. They met at the residence of former Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in the national capital in the wake of the party’s humiliating defeat in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. They came out with a joint statement after the meeting, in which the 18 leaders said, “We demand Congress to initiate dialogue with like-minded forces to create way for credible alternative for 2024 LS polls.”
The letter, which was written by the ‘Group of 23’ or ‘G-23’ leaders, said the only way forward is for the Congress to adopt the model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision-making at all levels. Due to the demoralising results during the Assembly elections and constant exodus of party workers, the Congress Party is feeling the heat and the need for introspection. The letter was signed by 18 Congress veterans, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Manish Tewari, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Shankar Singh Vaghela, Sandeep Dixit, Vivek Tankha and Raj Babbar.
In fact, the Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, without blaming her star campaigners asked the State unit presidents of all the five States to resign. Also, Congress assigned a leader for each of the five States to take stock of the post-poll situation. Congress has appointed Rajani Patil, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, Jitendra Singh and Avinash Pandey, to assess the post-poll situation and suggest organisational changes in the States that recently went to the polls. However, this exercise will take time but if Congress needs to re-build its image and confidence among its rank and file, it would require massive churning and a re-look at their strategy too, especially in view of the coming Gujarat Assembly state elections in December 2022 and later the General elections in 2024.
Many elements within the G-23 are wary about Rahul Gandhi accepting a leadership role in the Lok Sabha as leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and at the same time opening up of Congress President post for elections in which the ‘family’ would stay out. In fact this proposal had been made earlier in 2019.
Congress leaders have told media that the G-23 is sharply divided on the ‘Rahul issue’. At least four senior leaders do not want Rahul to be playing any strategic role in the party, which is not acceptable to the ‘family’. Some other G-23 leaders want Rahul to himself decide on what future role he would play for the party. The ball now lies in the court of Rahul Gandhi. In fact, the younger lot in the Indian National Congress like Sachin Pilot, Deepender Hooda, etc, are names doing the circles in the party to play an active role in re-building of the party and pull it out of the ‘mess’ in which they have landed since the entry of Modi as Prime Minister. BJP since 2014 has been calling in all elections “Congress Mukt Bharat” (Congress free India) and they have sustained their statement against the Congress.
In fact, the G-23 leaders have also tried to engage with State units of the Congress party and many States have refrained from being engaged in this internal ‘crisis’ which the party is facing for the first time since its inception in 1885. G-23 leaders had reportedly planned to expand it to G-50 but the response from various State Congress units has been lukewarm. Yes, K Kamraj split in 1969 under powerful Indira Gandhi was also a point in Congress existence which had jolted the party a lot. Kamraj had become the leader of Indian National Congress (Organisation) in Tamil Nadu in 1969 by breaking away from the Indian National Congress. This time around it is extremely critical for Congress to lift itself up or else the exodus is likely to continue.
Not too long ago Jyotiraditya Scindia had resigned from Congress and he has been ‘awarded’ with Civil Aviation Ministry as a cabinet minister in Modi government. Such quitting could increase if Congress does not get serious in revamping the party organisation.
