And while choosing the face of the State, and of the party by-default, the party has tried to send out a different message.
The Congress has been constantly accused of dynaticism and choosing Mallikarjun Kharge as its president was one of the party’s attempts at erasing that reputation. Kharge himself publicly stated that the party will involve at least 50% youth which in itself was an indication of change.
In Himachal, Congress did it through an actual action. The common accusation for years has been that the children, wives, son-in-laws, brothers of the Congress leaders are given preference in the party. This led to many leaving the party for good and one must accept this reality. In the current situation, it seems next to impossible for the Congress to favour family raj which is why while recruiting for the post of chief minister in Himachal Pradesh, the party went with Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu instead of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife.
In Goa itself, there are some families which are considered synonymous with the Congress. Some of the young leaders from these families have now leaned towards the BJP but their senior family members are still with and around the Congress. The ‘family raj’ has always been considered as the core of Congress as the stress of party leaders was on allotting posts to their own relatives. Right from the party president Kharge to Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, P Chidambaram and many more, the list is long.
Kharge may have become the party president only recently but he brought forward his son Priyank Kharge in the political circle of Karnataka’s Gulbarga district quite long ago. Tired of his dynastic approach towards politics, Kharge’s once close acquaintance Umesh Jadhav resigned from the party. To add to the context, Jadhav later turned out to be a giant killer when he defeated Kharge, a seasoned veteran, in the Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga constituency. Until then, Kharge was known as a leader who is invincible and rightfully so, as he was elected to Karnataka’s general assembly for a staggering nine times and once to the Lok Sabha.
This is history, but now the tables have turned in such a way that Kharge will have to save Congress from dynastic politics. After Congress secured majority in Himachal, the six-time former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife and State President of Congress Pratibha Singh staked her claim to the chief minister’s post. Virbhadra Singh had an incredible stronghold on the politics of Himachal Pradesh and the leadership went to his wife after his death last year. The pro-Virbhadra group within the party became active after Congress’ victory and demanded for his wife to be given the chief minister’s post.
However, Congress made a wise decision not to. This hints at the change of approach by the party. The Congress will be tested during the allotment of candidature for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls and if they succeed at bringing new faces this time too, they can be hopeful. A lot depends on whether the party will be able to keep up with their journey which has begun in Himachal where they won 40 seats while BJP and independent candidates settled with 25 and 3, respectively. In case the BJP calls on the 3 independent MLAs to join them, they will need 7 more to reach the cut-off mark of 35. If the pro-Virbhadra group had given the preference, there were high chances of defection by the rest of the MLAs. The think tank of the party took a cautious stance and that benefitted them.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi created a positive atmosphere for the party through the mass movement called ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. They will also be taking out such movements from East to West before the 2024 polls and that should help to further rejuvenate the party as more thinkers and new leaders will be added to their fleet. Not everyone who has participated in this mass walk are Congress supporters, but they have participated only to show their disapproval with the ruling party’s governance. This has presented Congress to find new leaderships in different regions. If the party applies its Himachal strategy everywhere, it will be in a position to give a good fight in the upcoming general elections. Otherwise, the party will struggle to retain its position of LoP in Lok Sabha just the way it was in Gujarat polls.
