The massive setback that the Congress has suffered in the Assembly elections in the five states will embolden fellow parties, particularly the Aam Aadmi Party and the Trinamool Congress, to contest the grand old party’s claim and role as the central pole of the Opposition bloc. The humiliating defeats are also set to lead to further bloodletting in the party.
Even before the first vote was cast in the Assembly elections, there were murmurs in the Opposition camp that the Congress is fast losing its ability and claim, both morally and electorally, to lead the anti-BJP bandwagon. With AAP knocking out the Congress in Punjab and the BJP delivering a body blow to the party in Uttarakhand and Goa, the Congress is staring at an existential crisis.
With the party due to elect a new president in a year, the results will no doubt become yet another arrow in the quiver of the anti-Rahul Gandhi camp as to seek democratisation in the party. There will be calls for putting in place a collective leadership model, a relatively alien concept for the Congress, to undercut the supremacy of the Gandhis. It is to be seen whether any leader other than those who are part of the G-23 would have the courage to speak up and show the mirror to the leadership.
Despite its tall claims, the Trinamool Congress’s Goa dash came a cropper, but many parties in the Opposition, including allies like the NCP and friends like the RJD, feel that the anti-BJP grouping needs a new form in both style, substance and leadership.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already signalled her intention to convene a meeting of the Opposition leaders, a move which has not surprised the Congress. The refrain thus far from the Congress leaders was to wait for March 10. The reality has now dawned.
Some of the leaders have predicted that the Congress could be heading for a split. It is another matter that barring perhaps Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana, there are not many leaders in the Congress who have the potential to win 10 or 20-odd seats for the party, leave aside a state. And this is one aspect which is repeatedly emphasised by Rahul groupies, each eager to prove unflinching loyalty to the family.
But many leaders, even those who are loyal to the Gandhis, feel the leadership’s handling of Punjab was not right. Most Congress leaders have no qualms in admitting that the Congress self-destructed. The central leadership could not control motormouth Navjot Singh Sidhu even after it appointed Charanjit Singh Channi as the Chief Minister. It went to town tom-tomming the elevation of a Dalit leader as the CM, but could not capitalise on the brave move largely because of the relentless infighting.
A sulking Sidhu, seen as enjoying the confidence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, kept on undermining the CM. With the two leaders pulling in different directions, most leaders had read the writing on the wall much in advance and say it was the Congress central leadership which is to be blamed for the disaster that the party is facing in the border state.
