Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 14: Going to the polls within the next eight months, the Congress in Gujarat still shows no inclination to make a serious effort to return to power in the home state of the prime minister Narendra Modi where it has remained in the cold for the last 27 years.
The downfall of the Congress had started from the 1995 elections when for the first time the BJP swept to power on its own and since then barring a year of Shankarsinh Vaghela’s rule with outside support from the Congress, the party failed to come anywhere close to power and since the advent of Modi as the chief minister in 2001, the Congress is only going downhill.
After giving a marginally better performance in the 2017 state Assembly elections when the powerful “Patidars” (Patels) showed disenchantment with the BJP, it was expected that the Congress has learnt its lessons and would make more cohesive and aggressive bids in 2022 to dethrone the BJP from the saddle, but as the elections are nearing, the divisions within the Congress is coming out more in the open.
The latest is the disenchantment with the party of the young brigade led by Hardik Patel, designated as the working president of the state Congress but without any authority, and his close friend Jignesh Mevani, who was elected to the state Assembly last time as an independent and yet to officially joined the Congress but all practical purposes a more dedicated Congressman than the party’s many of the old guards because of his strong dislike for the BJP.
Speaking a day after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a 2015 case registered during the Patidar agitation clearing the way for Hardik Patel to jump into the electoral arena, the young “working president” made his intentions clear to contest the elections but publicly lashed out at the party’s state leadership.
Hardik Patel, who was handpicked by the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi for induction in the party just before the 2017 Gujarat election, exposed the internal turmoil in the opposition party as he accused the leadership of sidelining him. He said he was not invited to any meeting of the state Congress unit and he was never consulted before decisions. “My position in the party is that of a new groom who has been made to undergo nasbandi (vasectomy),” he said.
The powerful Patidar leader is also believed to be upset at the way the party has handled the induction of another leader of the community, Naresh Patel. His comments are hugely troubling for the Congress in one of the few states in which it is in a direct fight with the ruling BJP. “The talk doing the rounds on the induction of Naresh Patel in the Congress is insulting for the entire community. It has been over two months now. Why has no decision been taken yet? The Congress high command or local leadership should take a quick decision about Naresh Patel’s induction,” he said.
Hardik Patel said the Patidar quota agitation had helped the Congress win a significant number of seats in the elections to local bodies in 2015 and the 2017 state election in Gujarat, when the party won 77 constituents in the 182-member assembly. “But what happened after that? Many in Congress also feel that Hardik Patel was not properly utilised by the party after 2017. It may be because some people in the party would think that I would come in their way after five or 10 years if I am given significance today,” he said.
Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor said he would soon meet with Hardik Patel to discuss his concerns. “The Congress is ready to welcome Naresh Patel…But ultimately, the final decision will be taken by him only,” Thakor said.
Fiery and aggressive Mevani, who shared the dais with Hardik Patel, is also reportedly disenchanted with the lethargic and sparkle less Congress which apparently seems to be resigned to the fate that the party has no chance to dethrone the BJP in Gujarat in the next 50 years. The leaders like Mevani, who would not accept the BJP as an option might opt to go to a party like the Aam Aadmi Party which has just started emerging an alternative to the Congress in Gujarat.
A mercurial politician who was in 2012 the richest MLA in the Gujarat Assembly, with declared assets of Rs 122 crore, Indranil Rajyaguru was known to have been considering his options for a while now. However, compounding the Congress’s problems in the state, and adding to its string of embarrassments, Rajyaguru left it for the AAP just three weeks after the Congress hoped to have won the sulking leader over with the post of vice-president of the Gujarat PCC.
At a brainstorming session of the Gujarat Congress in Dwarka a month ago, Rahul Gandhi reminded his partymen about the fight they put up in the assembly elections five years ago. The Congress made the BJP huff and puff and restricted it to 99 seats in the House of 182. It was also the first time since 1990 that the BJP failed to cross 100 seats.
But while the BJP learnt its lesson and started a more aggressive moves to further demolish the Congress in the state, the Congress in contrast started becoming a more divided house with the old guards fighting among themselves and the young brigades virtually pushed out of reckoning. While the results of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur seem to have reinvigorated the BJP, as Modi received a hero’s welcome at the roadshows in Ahmedabad after the party’s impressive show, it seems to have totally demolished the Congress which earlier hoped that plethora of problems the people faced with the pandemic, unemployment, price rise and the economic hardships had washed away Modi’s charm. Besides, the BJP would also benefit from the presence of the AAP which for the first time make the Gujarat elections a triangular contest.
Even as the Congress’ central leadership believe to be toying with the idea of bringing in election strategist Prashant Kishor to guide the party for the Gujarat elections, the party in the state is learnt to be divided over the move. Many leaders in the party disagree that Kishor carry any magic wand to bring the Congress back to power and want absolute powers for themselves to challenge the BJP. A section of the State leaders has written to the Congress high command to take an early decision on Prashant Kishor’s induction since this is delaying the party’s election plans, as if the party really had a “plan” to defeat the BJP and AAP simultaneously even while keeping the AIMIM, which sure would divide the Congress vote bank, in hunour.
These leaders are learnt to have told the central leadership that the Congress party was in a “strong position” in the rural areas while the BJP has a vice-like grip over the urban areas and even Prashant Kishore couldn’t do much there. “Instead of spending huge money on PK, it is better to spend the same on good candidates of the party in Gujarat,” some leaders said. However, there is another section that feels Prashant could help rev up the party cadres “and boost their morale that someone like PK still sees a great hope in the party in Gujarat.”