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The first phrase from the RJD has come after its Mahagathbandhan with the Congress failed to notch up the numbers to type the federal government in Bihar.
“The Congress had become a shackle for the Mahagathbandhan. They fielded 70 candidates but didn’t even hold 70 public rallies. Rahul Gandhi came for three days and Priyanka Gandhi didn’t come. Elections were in full swing and Rahul Gandhi was on a picnic at Priyanka ji’s place in Shimla. Is a party run like that? This is benefitting the BJP,” RJD chief Shivanand Tiwari mentioned on Sunday.
The BJP was fast to capitalise. Union minister Smriti Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi from Amethi within the 2019 elections, tweeted: “When politics for some is in in pants, shirts and picnics.”
The dilemma earlier than the Congress is how to react to what the RJD has mentioned because it stays an ally. But what Shivanand Tiwari mentioned is one thing a lot of its allies in in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are beginning to worry. That the Congress has no hearth in its stomach and its projection of Rahul Gandhi as the one star campaigner implies that it could be a useless horse because the BJP breaths down its neck earlier than crucial meeting elections.
The presidential polls in Congress are due in January, and whereas Rahul Gandhi might be pitched and cajoled to take up the highest job, some throughout the get together are starting to wonder if that will be a good suggestion.
First of the states headed to meeting polls subsequent is West Bengal. While as a nationwide get together the Congress wouldn’t be seen as taking part in second or third fiddle to any regional get together, the very fact is that the Congress becoming a member of palms with the Left to tackle the Trinamool Congress will solely make the Congress find yourself as a ‘vote katua’ (vote cutter) get together.
For the Congress, it’s necessary to perceive who the true enemy is. It’s clearly the BJP. These are the one two nationwide events. The two stand at reverse ends of the ideological spectrum and, on this sense, provide another to one another.
But the Congress has but to get its state organisations battle-ready. In Bengal, barring Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, no different chief is even recognised within the state. And the appointment of Adhir because the state unit chief has angered TMC supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee much more as he’s a identified Mamata baiter who had within the Lok Sabha raked up the Narada subject. Adhir additionally comes from the Murshidabad belt which has sizeable Muslim inhabitants, and the Owaisi issue is a warning signal.
An offended Mamata would don’t have any qualms crushing Adhir in his bastion. All this helps the BJP.
“In politics, it’s important to appear to be an opponent at times without being one,” a senior Congress chief mentioned.
This may maybe have been the technique in West Bengal.
In Tamil Nadu, barring a handful of MPs, the Congress has not even bothered to construct a robust group. Infighting and egos battles have hammered the Congress. The DMK isn’t too positive that the Congress will be of assist. There are probabilities that the DMK could not agree to give the variety of seats the Congress would demand to contest on. In reality, some observers say the DMK could distance itself from the Congress within the run-up to the elections subsequent yr.
Zooming out from the 2 state elections, the bigger subject here’s a confused, insufficient management. “We have no problems with Rahul Gandhi becoming the party president, but then he has to be a 24×7 politician. Optics are critical. This has carried on for far too long,” one other senior Congress chief mentioned.
In August, a gaggle of 23 Congress leaders, dubbed within the media as Group of 23 or G23, had written a letter to interim chief Sonia Gandhi asking for readability of management. They had additionally demanded {that a} Congress Working Committee (CWC) assembly be held quickly and elections introduced. While that course of has begun, the longer term nonetheless stays unsure.
The corridors of the Congress headquarters as of late are empty, which might be a suitable sight if the leaders have been away and busy in political motion. But barring just a few who’re stationed in states they’re in-charge of, most are lacking in motion altogether.
Shivanand Tiwari’s remark comes shut on the heels of former US President Barack Obama’s point out of Rahul Gandhi in his memoir as a frontrunner missing ardour and persistence.
The Congress is at such a low level that outsourcing political activism is now not a luxurious it may possibly afford. Sonia Gandhi throughout UPA days had outsourced it to her shut group, however again then she ran the get together with an iron fist. Her energy additionally got here from the truth that she led her get together to wins in nationwide elections and in a number of state meeting elections. Unfortunately, neither Rahul nor Priyanka have that achievement but to their credit score. And until they do, the allies and smaller regional events are doubtless to remind the Gandhis and the Congress that politics can’t be one massive get together.
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