Congress banking heavily on Dynasty charm and politics of privileged !! In contrast BJP makes surprise choices as CMs ... but sends out a message to little known middle rung that they can have a Bright Career

BJP's Chief Ministers such as Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh, Bhupendra Patel in Gujarat and Bhajan Lal Sharma in Rajasthan are examples of how the 'party with a difference' --the BJP - can reward its anonymous middle rung players. The story is different in Congress. 

In circa 2024 and humbled thrice 2014, 2019 and 2024 - it is still rejoicing the fact that Prianka Gandhi Vadra has entered Parliament. It's a record. 

Congress’s First Family will now have three MPs. Does it give any wrong signal?

Those who rejoice and bask in reflected glories of dynastic and elitists' success may miss the point. But it is a fact of life that on ground zero - at the level of faceless Indians - the Congress will obviously face the challenge of  projecting itself as a part for the young and middle class - who are ambitious but are also impatient.

"In doing so, it underlines a contrast with a Congress in the grip of family," says an article in 'Indian Express'. 

The Congress party has announced an intent to launch a “national movement” centred on its concerns about the integrity of the electoral process. 

“Free and fair elections is a constitutional mandate that is being called into serious question by the partisan functioning of the Election Commission. Increasing sections of society are becoming frustrated and deeply apprehensive. The Congress will take up these public concerns as a national movement,” last week’s Congress Working Committee resolution said.

The CWC meet was held in the aftermath of the party’s electoral defeat in Maharashtra, and the setback in Haryana just before that. Congress has already submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission, and, by all accounts, the movement it proposes to launch will fold in alleged malpractices ranging from the EC’s less-than-neutral conduct to tampering with electoral rolls and voter suppression.

The bitter truth is, however, that there is no hard evidence so far to back its claims.

Closer studies since June 2024 suggests, the BJP seems purposeful even after a setback (of losing even Ayodhya/Faizabad Lok Sabha seat) and a few odd numbers. But Congress was given a huge encouragement in June has gone back to 'setback' moments as it miserably lost Maharashtra and also wasted an opportunity in Haryana.

In fact, an argument goes, can Congress fight back and does it have a strategy ?

The Bharat Jodo Yatra probably helped both the party and the leader Rahul Gandhi; but things were not enough.

Is it a case then that it appears the grand old party is just sitting back and waiting for voters to see the light or for the BJP to trip on anti-incumbency? The facts are really cruel. The Congress has a typical bad experience of fading out from the scene in states where it lost power. There are states like Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal - where it is no longer taken seriously. In the Lok Sabha elections, the party may like to look the other side - but it has lost three consecutive polls - 2014, 2019 and 2024. 

In the first two instances, it did not have one-tenth of Lok Sabha members and hence missed the formal Leader of the Opposition crown.     

In electoral sense, the Congress and especially Rahul Gandhi thought name calling against Gautam Adani would help their cause. It did not. 

In Maharashtra, if Congress relied on Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray factors; the calculation went haywire. 

If 'farmer distress' was an issue as were anxieties on price rise and joblessness. the party lacked adequate plans on ground to exploit.

In Haryana too an over confidence prevailed and it boomeranged. 

"The Congress seems to be counting, most of all, on being the inevitable receptacle of the vote when the voter turns away from the BJP. In far too many elections, Congress posturing has smacked of a complacent self-righteousness, suggesting that the only thing to be done is for the voters to see the error of their ways in choosing the BJP," says Vandita Mishra in her piece to 'Indian Express'. 

While the BJP plays the caste game to the full, for instance — in Maharashtra, ahead of the campaign, its strategists were counting the 350-plus OBC sub-castes and the 50-plus sub-groups in SCs — it also invites voters into bigger and wider imagined communities. The Nation and the Civilisation that upholds it, India on the World Stage, the Hindu Samaj, the Women, the Young and Aspirational, the Labharthi or beneficiaries. 

In contrast Congress, through its demand for the caste census — is generally seen as harping on narrower identities. PM Narendra Modi made it worse for the Congress by coining the slogan -- Ek Hae toh Safe Hae. It was a political masterstroke. It tried to give the message that the Congress -- well known for pro-Muslim and pro-Christan stance - was being anti-Hindu and trying to divide it. The Hindu unity came in favour of the BJP like a Tsunami.   

Congress really needs to find new political imagination !!

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