The Congress presidential election took place in the background of the deep crisis in which India’s oldest political party finds itself. Unable to arrest its long-term decline as an electoral force both at the national level and in several important States, the party’s crisis has been deepened by a steady stream of desertions by leaders and legislators, often to its national rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Organisationally, the party has faced sharp criticism from the media and political commentators but also from within its own ranks, asking it to get its crumbling house in order. Long-term Congress loyalists have questioned what has become established as the ‘natural order’, the default position of the party leadership being held by a member of the Gandhi family. An open rebellion was mounted by the G-23 — a group of 23 leaders — who expressed disaffection with the way the party was being run. Some prominent names made high-visibility exits—Ghulam Nabi Azad floated his own party and Kapil Sibal quit the party and was renominated to the Rajya Sabha as an independent supported by the Samajwadi Party.
Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh in October 2022. The Congress leader clearly washed his hands of the party presidential role ahead of the election. | Photo Credit: PTI
With Rahul Gandhi clearly washing his hands of the party presidential role, and given Sonia Gandhi’s declining health, the 137-year-old party astonishingly remained without a president and leader during a period when it faced some of the worst crises of its existence, not the least of which was the spectacle presented by eight of its MLAs walking over to the BJP in Goa in September this year.
While notorious for being oblivious to the best-intended counsel, the grand old party was nevertheless forced by these very public proofs of its debility to sit up and show some signs of intelligent life. At long last organisational elections were announced on August 28 , ostensibly open for any party member to contest and having no Gandhi family member as contender.
And on October 26, Mallikarjun Kharge (80) became the first non-Gandhi party president in 25 years. He defeated Shashi Tharoor by a significant margin, securing 7,897 votes against Tharoor’s 1,072. The electorate constituted of 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates, almost 95 per cent of whom voted.
Evidence of internal disarray
More than the technicality of the process, which faced its share of media scrutiny and controversy, the forces at play in the election and the insights into party functioning it offered make for interesting analysis. To begin with, the party high command did not make any bones of the fact that it was trying to push someone of its own choice as presidential candidate, a family loyalist. Earlier, in May, the Congress Working Committee had held a Nav Sankalp Shivir at Udaipur, where a couple of significant resolutions had been adopted, including the rule that no person could hold more than one post.
New party president president Mallikarjun Kharge sits with Sonia Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, whom he beat by an impressive margin, and other Congress leaders in New Delhi on October 26 when he formally took charge. | Photo Credit: PTI
Thus, the initial attempt by the high command to push Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot into the fray ended in a fiasco, more evidence of the internal disarray and loss of command. It had been stressed, by none other than Rahul Gandhi, that the party would abide by the Udaipur resolution of one person-one post. And Gehlot was equally clear that he wanted to remain Rajasthan Chief Minister or at least ensure that his own man held the seat. The first signs of Sachin Pilot readying to take over in his stead saw Gehlot stage an unseemly mutiny and ensure that his candidature was removed from the party presidential election.
Made crushingly aware of its divided house in Rajasthan, the Congress could not risk a putsch there, with Assembly elections due next year. Mallikarjun Kharge, who had actually gone to Rajasthan as an AICC observer to install a new Chief Minister in Gehlot’s place, found himself thrust into place as a candidate for Congress president. The qualities that perhaps proved decisive in Kharge’s elevation was his steadfast loyalty to the party and proximity to the Gandhis.
Such obvious machinations meant that to most observers, the result of the election was a foregone conclusion. The decks were being stacked in favour of the family candidate. But a spark of interest remained alive because Thiruvananthapuram Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, who had thrown his hat in the ring early, stayed on gamely. He projected himself as the harbinger of real change and retained this position right through, his campaign portraying Kharge as representing the status quo.
Interestingly, most of the G-23 rebels fell in line when Kharge emerged as the preferred choice. Even though he was himself a member of the group, Tharoor was unable to get his G-23 mates to propose his nomination papers, leave alone campaign for him. Most of them came out in open support of Kharge.
Son of the soil
While the level of autonomy the new chief will enjoy in practice may be under question and Kharge might have his weaknesses, his experience of working in the organisation and in government, both in his home state of Karnataka and at the Centre (as Union Minister of Labour and Employment, and Social Justice and Empowerment), far exceeds that of Shashi Tharoor. This might have influenced the party cadre.
Tharoor is identifiable as part of India’s social elite and has a slick public persona. He is, however, known to have made some uncomfortable statements that have walked a thin line between his and his party’s public ideological stances. His long UN career before entering politics means that he has a credible understanding of global politics and a presence in the international arena. He stood for freshness and would likely have appealed to younger party members.
Against this was the ‘son of the soil’ image of Kharge, seen as more representative of India’s oppressed millions. Kharge is also a veteran politician who has come a long journey from being president of a Block Congress Committee back in 1969.
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Was the election a purely symbolic affair? Or a real one between competing visions of how the Congress organisation could be strengthened and its political and ideological framework rebuilt? Has this election changed in any way what the Congress offers to the people or its effectiveness in conveying its message? Will it influence the political tactics the party will adopt in order to pose a meaningful challenge to the BJP?
To get a sense of what might lie ahead, one must parse what Kharge said at the ceremony held at the All India Congress Committee headquarters when he took charge as president. Barring the usual accolades to the family, it was the substantive part of what he said that was most interesting. It was similar to and yet different from his first statement at the press meeting when results were announced on October 19 (the election was held on October 17). On that day, he had said that every Congress worker was equal and the challenge was to fight the threats to democracy and to the Constitution posed by the “fascist forces”.
The day he took charge, he did not use the word fascism in his speech but questioned the “New India” that was being forged. “What kind of a New India is this?” he asked. He took on the ruling BJP, his speech covering the angst of almost every section of society ranging from the youth to farmers, women, Dalits, minorities and tribals. He referred obliquely to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident of “farmers being crushed by a jeep”, and the “garlanding of exploiters of women,” a reference to the remission of sentence of those convicted in the Bilkis Bano case and their being garlanded after release. He talked about price rise, privatisation of PSUs, the use of raids by central organisations, and the ambition of the BJP-RSS to obliterate all opposition within the country.
Tributes and promises
Kharge spoke in Hindi, peppered with a little English, and underscored his rise to the top post from a lowly party worker. He emphasised his modest background as the son of a worker, perhaps underlining the absence of dynasty. He praised the internal democracy that had allowed an ordinary person like him, a Dalit, to move upwards. He paid tributes to Nehru, Gandhi, Bose, and Patel, among others, but gave special emphasis to Ambedkar and the need to protect the Constitution and the idea of “modern India” crafted by the Congress.
Importantly, Kharge underlined that the decisions of the Udaipur conclave would be implemented, beginning with filling up organisational vacancies, reserving 50 per cent posts for those under 50, setting up a Public Insight Committee, Political Affairs Committee, Social Justice Advisory Committee, and an Election Management Department. He referred to the PCC delegates as the “base” or aadhar of the party; and constituted a 23-member steering committee to function in place of the Congress Working Committee until elections to the CWC are held early next year.
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Given the emphasis on organisational reforms in Kharge’s acceptance speech, one might be tempted to conclude that the Congress has finally become serious about its future. But for a party that has been around for more than a century, organisational atrophy is but one of many problems. The Congress may see itself as a pan-India party that is representative of everyone but faces the arduous task of finding an alternative to BJP’s Hindutva ideology.
Without crafting a strong opposing philosophy to offer to the people, it will be difficult for the Congress to mobilise mass support in a country that is increasingly fragmented by competitive identity politics whose strident notes are loud enough to drown the underlying economic crises, the vast inequalities, the absence of jobs, and other such pressing issues.
The cynical view is that nothing much is likely to change as a result of the election. It is quite probable the Congress was not prepared to embrace the change that Tharoor represented, which puts in shadow what real change it will allow in the party’s functioning or approach despite now having a non-family party president.
The Congress is no longer the national party it once was. It still remains, however, the only party other than the BJP that can claim to have influence across significant parts of the country. Given this fact, the Congress remains an important part of any process of creating a viable alternative to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Doesthe Congress realise how far it has slid and does it have the will to use this organisational change as an opportunity to not only revamp itself but send a message of hope and new beginnings to the electorate — that is the question. Whether Kharge can be that agent of revival, the man of the hour, remains to be seen.
The Crux
- Mallikarjun Kharge is the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 25 years.
- The presidential election came in the backdrop of a prolonged crisis in the Congress party.
- Kharge was quite obviously the Gandhi family’s preferred choice.
- Kharge’s ‘son of the soil’ image is likely to have swayed party workers against Shashi Tharoor’s image as a member of the elite.
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