Sucharita Mohanty, the Congress' candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha seat in Odisha, has returned her ticket citing insufficient campaign funds from the party. Mohanty said that despite efforts like a public donation drive and minimised spending, she struggled financially and could not sustain an impactful campaign.
Congress always paid heavily due to rebellion
New Delhi
What's common between G K Moopanar, H N Bahuguna, Sharad Pawar and Arvinder Singh Lovely?
They all quit Congress deserting the ship during election seasons albeit in different time space and it is true the history of grand old party backs the argument that dissension, revolts and desertion have always taken the wind out of Congress party’s sail.
Be that was 1999 when Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar raised the foreign origin bogey of Sonia Gandhi or the 1977 story when Chandrasekhar, Jagjivan Ram and H N Bahuguna had left Congress.
In the run up to 1996 polls, 'season' for migratory birds had caused immense damage to Congress when first Arjun Singh was expelled for his diatribe against P V Narasimha Rao. Late Singh along with stalwart N D Tiwari had floated All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) and threw a spanner in Narasimha Rao’s plans to return to power.
(The headline to my article in Telugu newspaper Eenadu makes it more interesting -- Rebels headache to Hastam (Hand symbol).
That year what gave a rude shock to the Congress was formation of Tamil Manila Congress in Tamil Nadu under the leadership of G K Moopanar and even P Chidambaram had joined him.
In 1996, the Congress failed to get even a single seat in the southern state.
In fact, statistics show the Congress suffered a debilitating blow for similar reasons in 1989 too. Interestingly, the worst drubbing the grand old party faced in 2014 – when its tally came down to a historic low of 44, there was no much dissension or desertion games.
In retrospect, the BJP leaders point out – in 1998 when the Congress was desperate to make a comeback, firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee had dealt a severe blow by staging a rebellion against the then Congress president Sitaram Kesri.
Even a hardcore Sonia Gandhi-loyalist Mani Shankar Aiyar had joined Mamata's newly floated Trinamool Congress had tied up with the BJP much to the chagrin of the Congress. In fact Aiyar was made National Coordinator of Trinamool Congress. However, after Sonia Gandhi took active interest in party affairs and later became party president, Aiyar was back in the party.
The Congress in 1998, managed 141 seats – just three more than its 1996 tally.
There was a downswing in vote share and it had come down to 25.82 per cent.
That year 1996– even Madhav Rao Scindia had walked out of the party resulting in Congress meeting its waterloo and the BJP for the first time, had emerged as the single largest party.
In the past, in 1989, many say Bofors campaign in media and by opposition did not do as much damage to the Congress as did V P Singh walking out as Defence Minister from the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet.
With rebels like Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammad Khan and V C Shukla rallying behind, the Congress strength from a record 415 was brought down to 197.
The Nehru-Gandhi family has been ‘ousted’ from the Prime Minister’s official residence since then though between 2004 and 2014 – it was Sonia Gandhi who reportedly ran the UPA regime.
Interestingly, however, history also shows that not many Congress men and women could do well once they left the party. In 1996, Arjun Singh himself had lost the elections. Sharad Pawar’s ‘Maharashtra strongman’ tag did not take him far vis-a-vis prime ministerial ambitions and his party NCP also later worked under Sonia Gandhi as UPA chairperson.
Mr Pawar himself was Dr Manmohan Singh’s Agriculture Minister for 10 years.
Tariq Anwar has now returned to Congress fold in Bihar while former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma’s politics too did not go far. He even unsuccessfully contested against Pranab Mukherjee for the coveted office of President of India in 2012.
Among the Congress deserters, Morarji Desai, V P Singh and Chandrasekhar could become Prime Minister and Mamata Banerjee created ‘her story’ in West Bengal when she ousted the Marxists in their den in 2011.
This year will probably decide the fate of onetime Congress dynasty's loyalist Ghulam Nabi Azad. He floated a new party after leaving Congress in 2021.
History has the habit of repeating itself and it is more so in contemporary politics.
The series of desertions in the Congress camp including the likes of one time insider Tom Vadakkan and across many states in 2019 suggested that the Congress party was up for an uphill task in the elections five years back.
Playing up the Rafale aircraft deal row was a big gamble despite the euphoria and media hype over the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into the poll scene.
Ultimately she did not contest.
The grand old party suffered dissension across the country including Gujarat and Telangana in 2019 where even a few months before polls, it was expected to put up a good fight.
There was a ‘mess’ in the Maharashtra unit with Leader of the Opposition Vikhe-Patil going soft on the BJP-led state government and particularly on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. His son Sujoy had joined BJP.
In 2019, there was revolt against Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam. This year he is out from the party and has returned to Shiv Sena.
Milind Deora also quit.
Notably, in 2019 Priya Dutt -- Late Sunil Dutt's daughter - had announced she would not be contesting.
In Gujarat, at least four MLAs quit even as Hardik Patel made an entry into the party. In Telanganga, at least six legislators had moved towards K Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS. In Haryana, a three-time MP Arvind Sharma had joined the BJP.
In Delhi, Tom Vadakkam gave a virtual shocker. He joined the unique club of the likes of Natwar Singh – who also has been close to Sonia Gandhi one time - and now has turned an ardent critic of dynastic politics.
Congress candidates in Surat in Gujarat and in Indore in Madhya Pradesh have withdrawn from the fray and BJP already has two MPs in the new Lok Sabha..
ends
