For first time since Independence, Congress goes to polls without a popular leader or slogan.
Having forced an election upon the nation, the Congress now finds itself least prepared to face it. For the first time since Independence, the party goes to the polls without a recognisable leader or slogan. (* on eve of 1998 polls.... several Congress stalwarts had started leaving the party... including Mamata Banerjee)
Swapan Dasgupta (in later years became a BJP leader, Rajya Sabha MP; and even contested assembly polls in West Bengal)
He wrote:
"India is an old nation with a young population, a population that can barely remember the golden age of the 112-year-old Indian National Congress. At best familiar with the "sympathy" election of 1984 that led to the Congress winning its most resounding mandate in history India's post-Midnight's Children generation may well be forgiven for viewing the intense nervousness that prevails in India's Grand Old Party as a natural occurrence."
It is, however, a nervousness with a monumental difference. In the 50 years since Independence, the Congress has become accustomed to both winning and losing elections. In 1957, a communist-led alliance in Kerala with E.M.S. Namboodiripad at its head inflicted the first defeat on the Congress in a state election; and two decades later, the Congress was trounced in a Lok Sabha election.
Since 1977, India has witnessed a see-saw electoral battle between the Congress and non-Congress formations.
The contest for the 12th Lok Sabha next February should, ideally, be no different.
Except in one important respect: for the first time, India's largest national party goes into battle without a recognisable face to lead it.
Link
That, of course, is putting things charitably.
"I am the party president and the election will be fought under my leadership," announced All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Sitaram Kesri last week. "I may not be a great leader but I am a humble worker and the Congress workers identify with me." Kesri fooled no one.
For, though the Congress has in the past gone into elections with different parliamentary party and organisational heads - K. Kamaraj was president in 1967, Jagjivan Ram in 1971 and S.D. Sharma in 1977 - it is perhaps for the first time that even Congressmen are not clear about who will lead the government if the party gets the mandate.
Kesri is - to be fair to him - no less photogenic or linguistically gifted than K. Kamaraj. The difference, however, is that Kamaraj was highly respected by his partymen, to the extent that Central ministers relinquished office at his word. Kesri's writ does not run even in the Congress Working Committee (CWC), most of whose members were handpicked by him.
Elsewhere, many party leaders are quite brazen in defying the Congress president. The rebel from West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, had set the tone as early as August when, at the aicc session in Calcutta, she referred to the party chief as chuncho, loosely but not inappropriately translated as a bandicoot.
Last week, when she threatened to launch a regional party, a visibly unnerved Kesri despatched party General Secretary Oscar Fernandes to Calcutta to placate her.
The emissary arrived in the city, only to find that Banerjee did not even want to see him.
She finally agreed, but in the presence of hundreds of her supporters, a battery of journalists and scores of curious onlookers.
(Mamata) Banerjee may be the most visible symbol of the groundswell against Kesri. Other party leaders convey the same message without being so blatant.
On December 12, the CWC met in Delhi for over four hours. In attendance, besides the elected members, were Congress chief ministers and heads of legislature party units of all states.
During the meeting, Kesri sat mostly squirming in embarrassment as leader after leader made the familiar request that Sonia head the campaign. Not one of them mentioned their party chief's name even once.
As one CWC member later said: "Congress ko ek naya chehra chahiye(the Congress needs a new face)".
In fact, after the meeting, several members gathered informally and their discussion centred on ways of keeping the party chief away from most constituencies and dissuading him from appearing on television. They were perhaps alluding to the after-effects of Kesri's disastrous utterances on the box in the recent past.
The same day, the socialite wife of a former party MP was heard telling her friends at a dinner: "I have told my husband that if you put Kesri on the posters, even my children and I will not vote for you."
It is not known if the wives of CWC members too held out similar threats, but the fact that the same night the party announced that its posters would sport pictures of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi seemed to suggest that they had.
The leadership vacuum in the Congress is only one of a series of problems confronting the party.
Others include:
Absence of a clear-cut election issue: Kesri first announced that secularism would be the party's main plank.
A few days later, he passed the task of determining campaign issues to the Manifesto Committee.
Perhaps he realised that the secularism plank could wobble against the UF's counter-accusation that the party passed on the advantage to the BJP.
Not Mr India: Sitaram Kesri
Absence of a strong anti-incumbency wave: The 17-month UF rule was too short to generate such a wave. Also, having supported the UF, the Congress has conceded virtually the entire opposition space to the BJP.
Paucity of young leaders:
The Congress is just not appealing to younger voters. A state unit president confessed that while the party's old stock of election managers was either ageing or dying, there were few people at the block level who enjoyed nodding acquaintance with voters in the 18-30 age group.
These voters are increasingly crowding out the older generation from the polling booths.
The dwarfing of the Congress has been so marked that BJP leader Pramod Mahajan never fails to draw a lusty cheer when he describes the Congress' existential crisis:
"There was a time when the leader of the Congress spoke and the world listened; then, there was a time the country listened; then, at least the party listened; now, if the Congress leader speaks, his own party heckles him."
Perhaps, Mahajan's final flourish is equally relevant for the United Front (UF) whose own prime minister was heckled in Parliament.
But the UF at least has the benefit of satraps like N. Chandrababu Naidu, M. Karunanidhi, Jyoti Basu and Mulayam Singh Yadav who are well known in their own states
ends
Kirti Patil comments from Pune :
I did cover V N Gadgil, but not for the PTI. In 1998 he was already heading towards Yamraj's abode. Three years later after the 1998 elections he left this mortal place. He came from a staunch Congress family . His father Narhar was a the cabinet minister in jawaharlal Nehru's government and later became Governor of Punjab. VNG himself served as I &B minister in the Rajiv Gandhi's government. He was a learned man . No wonder he was senior advocate in the supreme Court and also served as party's chief spokesperson when Indira Gandhi, and later Rajiv Gandhi was president of the Congress. VNG even continued on the post during the tenure on PVNR. I. once visited his ancestral house in central Pune. One had to enter the kothi through huge wooden door embellished with big brass cones and bolts. A small door cut out of the big door would be opened by the pehredar for one to enter once in his study room I could observe a massive collection of books stacked from floor to roof. He was always smiling. Then MP from Pune. The seat meant for him. Nobody could challenge him on this turf, but unfortunately he neglected the emergence of wily Suresh Kalmadi, who created his space in Pune first as a president of youth Congress then as organiser of big time sports events, first beginning with Pune international marathon, wherein Kalmadi got Africans to run for big time money. That Kalmadi won LS seat from Pune in 1996 while VNG was still in good terms with PVNR was a total surprise. But Gadgil remained quiet and decided to leave this mortal world on his own terms. Conversely Kalmadi was in a hurry. He became railway minister and then brought commonwealth Games to India, which kickstarted his downfall. Having spent 10 months in Tihar jail for the alleged corruption committed during the organisation of the 2010 CWG rendered once a strongman needing a Walker and two attenders even while walking short distance
You try to shake his hands, sometimes he recognizes your face but his hands shiver increasingly. This is what has made of Kalmadi, who remained a party loyal even during his troubled days.
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