Congress’ Raipur plenary: Will Kharge act against himself and Jairam Ramesh?

Finally, a stage is set for Raipur AICC plenary (24-26 February 2023) that will ratify Mallikarjun Kharge’s appointment as the 88th president of the Congress. The plenary will also be an occasion for stocktaking the grand old party’s standing, fine-tuning ideology, and deliberating upon alliances and strategy for 2024. Raipur would also have extensive deliberations on the Udaipur declaration and a series of reforms that were contemplated at the picturesque Mewar town in May 2022. The grand old party, at Udaipur brainstorming conclave, had decided ‘one family one ticket’, ‘50 under 50’ norm (giving 50 percent of tickets to those under the age of 50) and adherence of the ‘one-man, one-post’ norm at all levels of party hierarchy. At present, Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury and Jairam Ramesh are holding posts and positions that run contrary to the one-man, one-post norm. The question doing the rounds at 24, Akbar Road and in Raipur is whether Kharge and Ramesh (who draws strength from his proximity to Rahul Gandhi) would act against themselves? Kharge is AICC chief and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (enjoying perks equivalent to a Cabinet rank minister). Jairam Ramesh is AICC general secretary as well as chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, while Adhir Ranjan Choudhury holds the dual post of Bengal Congress unit chief and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha. The key question is whether Kharge would hold elections for the Congress Working Committee? Both PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri (coincidence that just like Kharge, they were outside the Nehru-Gandhi family) had conducted internal party polls for the apex decision making body in rather contrasting fashion in Tirupati 1992 and Calcutta 1997. As per the Congress party constitution’s Article XIX, the Working Committee should consist of the president, the Leader of the Congress in Parliament, and 23 other members. Of them, 12 should be elected by the AICC and the rest should be appointed by the party president. As per the norm, only a member of the CWC can be appointed as party treasurer or general secretary. The provision for nominated category in the CWC is aimed at giving berths to women, weaker sections and minorities who often fail to make it to the CWC if a contest is held. This was evident from the outcome of CWC polls at Tirupati when PV Narasimha Rao, who had to take over the reins of the party and the Central government under the extraordinary circumstances in the wake of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, ordered “free for all polls” for ten (the number was raised to 12 during Sonia Gandhi era) CWC berths. Many veterans like Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar who used to fancy themselves as Rao’s rivals, closed ranks and produced a result that saw only the party heavyweights making the cut. The “Chanakya” of Indian politics that Rao was turned the tables when, soon after the CWC polls, the prime minister-cum-Congress president lamented how the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had failed to elect even a single woman, Dalit or a tribal to the CWC. As if waiting for the cue, Rao’s political secretary Jitendra Prasada, who was one of the ten winners, announced his resignation as an act of repentance. Arjun, Pawar and others followed him in haste. Rao said that he was satisfied to accept their resignations and made them CWC members from the AICC chief’s nominated category. By the time Sitaram Kesri reached Calcutta for 80th plenary session, the Congress was a divided house. Kesri teamed up with the then party vice-president Jitendra Prasada to capture the CWC and announced CWC polls. Kesri and Prasada withheld the list of 1,300 odd AICC delegates who were to elect the CWC till just a week before the plenary. Uttar Pradesh, with 154 AICC delegates, had a list of 109 persons personally loyal to him. Kesri’s home state Bihar list had some surprise omissions like Jagannath Mishra and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav who were known detractors of Kesri. However, these Machiavellian moves did not stop Arjun, Pawar and Rajesh Pilot winning the CWC polls by big margins. Behind the scenes, several arguments are being advanced that if Kharge would be authorised to make all 24 appointments in the CWC? The argument being marshalled at 24, Akbar Road now is that it would help him strike a balance in picking his team, provide adequate representation to women, Dalit, minorities and backwards classes. A contest, on the other hand, may lead to dissensions at several levels such as old guards versus young, loyalists versus merit, north-south divide among the AICC delegates, etc. But high at stake is Kharge’s own promise to restore inner party democracy. His predecessors, Sonia and Rahul, had promised CWC polls. In fact, hours before Kharge filed his nomination as the Congress president, the in-house dissenters, aka G-23, had struck an informal deal with Kharge in exchange for his promise to restore ‘inner party democracy.’ Anand Sharma, Manish Tiwari, Prithviraj Chavan and others were seen ‘ditching’ fellow G-23 traveller’ Shashi Tharoor to side with Kharge. Now it is Kharge’s turn to honour his words but the elected chief is said to be waiting for a ‘signal’ from 10, Janpath. At Raipur, all eyes would also be on Ashok Gehlot, politician among politicians who has, so far, successfully defied the Congress high command and stayed on as the chief minister of Rajasthan. Would Gehlot contest CWC polls? If Gehlot avoids contesting, he is unlikely to be nominated as CWC member. Post November 2023, Gehlot would cease to be a special invitee in CWC if he fails to get another term as the chief minister. Sources close to him say it would be prudent for him to be in the CWC for a political life beyond November-December 2023. The writer is a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. A well-known political analyst, he has written several books, including ‘24 Akbar Road’ and ‘Sonia: A Biography’. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News, Trending News,  Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.