Status quoism doesn’t work: Lesson for Cong high command from Uttarakhand

The Congress is desperate for a winning strategy for the coming elections and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi has appeared inadequate in finding one. So far he has looked anything but confident on the issue of taking the NDA head on. However, for the Gandhi scion the solution could be somewhere close. In Dehradun, a few hundred kilometres from Delhi, Congressmen are celebrating a rare electoral success. The Congress-backed candidates won the elections to the chairman of Zila Panchayat in 10 out of 12 districts that went to polls. This included the prestigious seats of Dehradun itself. The BJP managed to bag the chairman seats in only two districts of Tehri and Chamoli. “Congress party under the leadership of Sonia ji, Rahul ji and Harish Rawat has shown that we still enjoy more goodwill than any other party in the state,” said Kishore Upadhyaya, president of Uttarakhand Congress and Gandhi family loyalist. “There is no Modi wave, if it is then where is it? Lok Sabha elections were a different ball game, but here elections are fought on local issues and Congress Government has performed well,” he added. [caption id=“attachment_1660319” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rahul Gandhi. AFP.[/caption] What ails Rahul Gandhi is the lack of faith that he has on his party men, or perhaps more faith in the “coterie” that surrounds him. Harish Rawat is one of the perfect examples of how the Congress party treats its loyal soldiers. He was credited with the party winning the state assembly elections way back in 2002 as state party chief, but the high command chose Narayan Dutt Tiwari over him. Rawat fell in line keeping the seniority of Tiwari in mind, but the party lost in 2007 despite talk of changing the ineffective leadership of Tiwari a year before the elections. In 2012, the “coterie” was once again at play when they chose rookie Vijay Bahuguna over other senior leaders. This time Rawat was forced to adopt a confrontationist attitude with the leadership as he enjoyed the support of at least 17 of the 32 Congress MLA’s. It was only when the party had their backs to the wall especially after Bahuguna’s inept handling of the relief work of the Uttarakhand flash floods last year that they decided to replace him with Rawat in February, 2014. Congress lost all five Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in the general elections three months after Rawat took over, but he delivered when it mattered by winning all three assembly bye elections last month and now the convincing win of Congress backed candidates in the Zila Panchayat elections in 10 out of 12 districts. A similar situation would have arisen for Siddaramiah in Karnataka had it not been for the controversy surrounding the UPA government then. The then Union Railways Minister Pawan Bansal was under fire for his nephew taking bribes allegedly while Law Minister Ashwani Kumar came for sharp criticism of his alleged interference in the Coal Mining scam in 2013. The high command wanted to install loyalist and senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge as Chief Minister of the state, but it was Siddaramiah who won the ballot with majority of MLA’s voting in his favour. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh too had to put pressure on the high command to ensure that no Delhi nominee takes over the chair in Shimla in 2012. He had to put up a show of strength by meeting a host of elected MLA’s and other senior leaders in Delhi, the very fact that such a senior leader had to resort to arm twisting is proof enough of the lack of faith that the Gandhi family has in their own leadership with a proven track record. “There is nothing of this sort in the party, we are a democratic party and believe in intra party democracy” says Randeep Surjewala, National Spokesperson Congress. “There is a method of electing leaders and we do it all the time, where is the question of high command intervening unless requested by the leaders” he adds. Even though the Congress may deny this in public, but the sudden surge in leaders wanting to speak in public should have alarm bells ringing for the party. If Rahul Gandhi genuinely believes he can take on Narendra Modi, then he will have to rely on leaders with mass base. But the current dispensation hasn’t looked open to the idea of change, and that remains the biggest worry for the Congress. Despite two months after a drubbing, the party has refused to throw up any new suggestions to tackle the growing influence of Narendra Modi. And for that to happen the Gandhi family will have to shed the cloak of status quo politics, and remember the age old saying “change is the only constant factor in our lives”.