Congress is halfway to wresting power

Turning a new leaf in its history, the grand old party – the Indian National Congress – has elected its first "non-Gandhi" president in 24 years. On October 19, 2022, the veteran Mallikarjun Kharge was elected in a direct contest with Shashi Tharoor to lead the party as its president. AICC and PCC delegates and the internal core committee members voted the president to power. This is particularly significant as Kharge hails from Dalit community and he swept the polls with landmark 8,000 votes.

This is also a historical decision for the Congress as there were internal dissensions that the CWC was relying on Nehru-Gandhi family patrons since 2019 to lead. Both the contenders – Kharge and Tharoor – campaigned for the party's top post for a month starting from their respective home towns. Seemingly, this may be deemed as party's new mantra to capture power. On the face of it, this may just be a leadership change but people have actually been looking for the change for so many years. By installing new chief, the party has done half the job and now the other half remains: to garner support by winning back the lost trust. The new chief, obviously, is going to be remote-controlled but he is going to be closely watched and any harsh steps by him will impact the party negatively.

Kharge has started taking active part in party administration from day one with feedback – that he is the right person for the top job – from senior leaders of Congress party. Comparatively, he has decades of experience and longstanding political career than most of his partymen. There is nothing like Kharge versus the three Gandhis—Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka.

The trio will remain the face of the Congress and it will win elections on their names only. With their legacy and capability, they will always be the driving force behind the grand old party's victory. But still, the new chief's election will belie Modi-Shah's main contention of family rule of Gandhis in the Congress. This is also intended to bring the estranged voters back to the party fold.

Now that Gujarat Assembly elections are very close in the home turf of Modi-Shah, Kharge's job starts right from here to try opening a new chapter for regaining power in this State as well as in Himachal Pradesh. As soon as this round is over, he must start campaigning for Assembly polls in States such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Karnataka Telangana and Madhya Pradesh to regain power and also make efforts to retain power in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. For 2024 general elections, he has mainly to focus on the Hindi belt and strive for forging alliances with regional parties in this region so that together they can keep the BJP away.

The Congress should actually focus on Hindi belt and try for making alliances with regional parties where the latter have strongholds in the States. Rahul Gandhi has also started his Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India March) mass movement under the banner of the Indian National Congress. Rahul Gandhi is orchestrating the movement by mobilising the party cadre and general public into walking by foot from Kanyakumari, the southern tip of the peninsula, to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, spanning 3,570 kilometres over 150 days. So far, this has garnered a lot of support from people. This may expand his fan base tremendously. Rahul Gandhi is running with people and doing all grass root things to woo the voters.

Congress certainly has the potential to come to power as it has held power for decades in the past. Although reduced to power in just one or two states, the party has to prepare for the 2024 general assembly elections. It is premature to comment on the prospects of Congress, but it can regain power if it comes up with the reformation needed to be a viable alternative. But it will certainly expand its base from where it is now. That will take time. This is a nice step towards the main objective.

Does it pose real challenge?

There is no upfront threat from the party to BJP but it is going to be a tough challenge for the party.The foremost challenge to the new chief is the revival of the party by mitigating the negative image over the poll losses in recent times. There have to be serious reforms and everyone in the party should be treated equally. Now that all eyes are on Kharge, any big-brother attitude by him will create new problems for the party. He should right away focus onretaining the old members and inducting new members in the party andstrengthening the grassroots cadre in States where its chances are apparent. He has to devise strategies which can actually take on challenges posed by BJP instead of just making tedious committees.

These are a few challenges that the Congress chief has to meet before it can take on the BJP in 2024 general elections. It is most likely that people may bring back Congress in the 2024 national elections if the theory – that people give chance to parties and leaders for 10 years and then want to bring change – is to be believed. This should be received as a real challenge by BJP as the dormant leaders have started roaring now. Kharge is also the right choice as he has vast political knowledge and experience.

Khargeis very experienced person and he is kind of bringing back that democratic notion of power of, for and by the people. He has the challenge of providing sustainable status to the Congress in different States and the country. His real power will be determined by how he tackles the Assembly elections in the States.

Can he take on Modi?

The present chief can very much take on Modi as now the Namo-Amit duo is going to be deemed as a power monopoly and the non-Gandhi-led Congress builds up its election pitch. All he has to do is to make Bharat Jodo Yatra overpower the '2024, Modi once more' slogan. This he can do by cultivating the regional leaders, the Bollywood of Mumbai and the business tycoons. He can take the advantage of the failures of the so-called bold decisions of Modi such as notebandi and GST apart from increasing poverty, unemployment and corruption.

More than anything else, Kharge will be seen on a par with his rival BJP president JP Nadda and he will have time on hand not to repeat the past mistakes but work vigorously to enlist active participation of party cadres. If the theory is to be believed, then the people of India like change of leadership at the Centre every 10 years. So if rightly put, the Congress chief now can exploit this fact and work it out in his favour. Voters out there are looking for an alternative and Congress can be the better option than the ambitious AAP or BRS.

Sonia Gandhi should actually step into the field and start campaigning and take help from good political strategists to actually work it out this time. With almost one and a half years on hand, a lot can be done. Another weak point of BJP is that the popularity of its state leaders is decreasing andCongress can stand to gain from it. This is evident in States like Punjab and Gujarat where regional parties like AAP have gained public support. It is just that, instead of holding long deliberations and creating committees after committees and heaping criticism on rivals, the Congress should analyse and chart out plans to beat BJP in its own game.