It’s difficult to guess whether Mallikarjun Kharge’s presidency will change the electoral fortunes of the Congress, a party psychologically mowed down by a string of desertions and poll defeats since it was ousted from power in 2014.
True to his amenable persona, the office to which he’s elected is expected to be more accessible, attentive and less barricaded by his personal staff and security personnel.
What the party direly needs at this juncture is a responsive presidency with an ear to the ground and an attention span that gives leaders and cadres a sense of importance and belonging. With the exception perhaps of his ongoing 3500-km Bharat Jodo Yatra, touted as a major outreach, Rahul Gandhi mostly came across to party persons as an elusive court of last appeal. He failed to fathom that absenteeism could be fatal in politics.
In contrast, Kharge’s presidency will, in all probability, be a full-time act, leaving it to the Gandhi family to continue being the Congress’s public face. A lot will depend on how deftly this division of work and space is executed to reinvent the 137-year-old party that seemed trapped in a time-warp in recent years.
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That the new president has a fair measure of the dynamics between de facto power and de jure charge is implicit in his assertions that he will work in consonance and consultation with the ‘first family’ that made room for his elevation after nearly a quarter-century of control.
The task is cut out for him.
He’d have too much to ask and too little to distribute by way of reward or patronage to his colleagues. That’s one reason even Sonia Gandhi cited to explain the Congress’s inability to retain talent. The other reason was the coloured past of some leaders that made them vulnerable to the BJP, which has no qualms about using the instruments of state.
Diminished probity in its rank and file and the blurred line between the government and the state has rendered the Congress’s fight almost un-winnable. It turned the party as much wiser as cynical, often mistaking genuine dissent for rebellion steered from outside by the BJP. The crises led to the belief that the “unreliable” old guard must make way for fresh blood, a theory that found creative expression in the Udaipur resolve to open 50% party positions to claimants below the age of 50. The bid’s to clean the slate to the extent possible.
That the Congress needs dusting and cleaning up at all organisational tiers is a no-brainer. But to remove the gathered moss, Kharge will need the support of the existing frontline to put in place the second line of leadership. He’d have to overturn history to succeed, what with the rampant factionalism that had gripped the party under other non-Gandhi presidents in recent decades: P.V. Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri.
Sonia Gandhi and (right) Sitaram Kesri. Photo: Reuters/File
The party’s unravelling on Kesri’s watch paved the way for Sonia Gandhi’s 1998 entry in active politics. Her leadership was established with the three Assembly polls the Congress won in her stewardship. In six years, she could restore it to power at the Centre for a 10-year stint.
The late Pranab Mukherjee once underscored Sonia Gandhi’s “consensual” approach as her USP. By allowing her decisions to be guided by consensus, she earned stature, acceptability and a veto in party affairs. That at once helped her have her way on the odd occasions she stood against the majority opinion.
That template can also serve Kharge well. But the party he has inherited is enfeebled, dispirited, cash-strapped and increasingly unfamiliar to electoral wins in a vastly altered, religiously radicalised polity. The one state which can turn around its fortunes anytime soon is his home ground of Karnataka, scheduled for elections in May 2023 after the upcoming Himachal and Gujarat polls, where the party’s prospects look dim.
To appear as a credible alternative, the Congress must defeat the BJP on its own strength or through creative alliance-making. These opportunities are available in Karnataka ― where its freshly minted president fought poverty to work his way up.
The Congress therefore must market Kharge the way the BJP marketed Draupadi Murmu. That brings one to the party’s foremost task of building a political narrative that has traction with the electorate. A Dalit at the helm should help. But that won’t happen unless all good men come to the aid of the party.
Rahul Gandhi has said he’ll report to the new president, who’ll decide his role in the party. He’d have to match his thought with action to set an example for others in the party. Nobody should be allowed to disturb the chain of command.
S. Vinod is a keen observer of Indian politics.
This article was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.