New Delhi: With political activities gaining momentum for the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat, the weaknesses of the Congress central leadership have come to the fore, apart from exposing the fact that former party president Rahul Gandhi’s decisions lack substance. Rahul Gandhi’s entire team flopped in Gujarat as well. The situation has come to such a pass that it has become difficult for the Congress to win a second Rajya Sabha seat. It is expected to win one seat. What adds to the Congress’ woes is that it may be headed for another split after the RS polls in the state.
Interestingly, the Congress, which had given anxious moments to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the 2017 Assembly elections, could not remain a united house inside a little over two years, with Rahul Gandhi being blamed for the Congress being a divided house in Gujarat. The question is now if the Congress will at all be a party to reckon with when the state goes to the Assembly elections in 2022.
In 2017, it’s the same Gujarat which had given the Congress some oxygen after its massive defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi had taken over the reins of the Congress during the Gujarat polls. He had hit the headlines for trying to play the soft Hindutva card. He visited several temples in an apparent bid to send out a soft Hindutva message. However, the Congress under him, although it gave a tough fight to the BJP, could not come to power. But Rahul Gandhi came in for praise for giving a tough fight to opponents. However, this was followed by Rahul Gandhi taking decisions on his own. This resulted in widening the split already existing in the party. The differences started growing between the old guards and the young Turks. Ignoring the old guard, Rahul Gandhi handed over the state’s command to Amit Chhabra, the CLP leader post to Paresh Dhanani and the state in-charge responsibility to Rajeev Satav. These decisions led to massive internal fights.
As the situation went from bad to worse, a big committee of 500 leaders was formed. But this turned out to be an exercise in futility, as the committee was dissolved within a year in 2019. This was followed by Congress’ massive defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Rahul Gandhi stepped down as Congress president and Sonia Gandhi was made interim president. But the decisions continued to be faulty. Shakti Sinh Govil and Bharat Solanki were given Rajya Sabha tickets on the advice of Ahmed Patel. But in the meantime legislators began to desert the Congress. The BJP grabbed the opportunity and fielded Abhay Bharadwaj, Rameela Ben and Narhari Ameen, necessitating the election. Elections have to be held for four seats in Gujarat on 19 June. The votes of 34 MLAs are needed to win one seat.
Before the split, the Congress had a sufficient number of 77 MLAs and three MLAs of its allies. But the situation changed completely after some of its MLAs left the party. There is an apprehension of more of the remaining 65 legislators leaving the Congress. The only NCP MLA is also likely to go with the BJP. So the Congress cannot repeat what it did in 2017. It had pulled out a victory of Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha election by one vote to upstage the BJP. Then Gujarat was in charge of Ashok Gehlot. The “Chanakya of Congress” Ahmed Patel was himself camping there.
The situation is totally different this time round. The Congress high command deferred taking several decisions, antagonising the cadre like what it did in Madhya Pradesh. No step was taken to address the issue of factionalism in the Gujarat unit of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi promoted less experienced members of his team. At the same time, Ahmed Patel managed to get tickets for Govil and Solanki but he couldn’t keep the party intact. Govil was made general secretary despite his defeat in the Assembly elections. Now, he will be in Rajya Sabha by winning the election, which will be his reward for ensuring Patel’s win in 2017. But the Congress is definitely getting weakened in the prevailing circumstances.