Congress in dilemma as regional parties train guns

Congress is increasingly finding itself as a target of regional parties keen to take the lead Opposition role ahead of 2024 polls

Buffeted by two conflicting targets — forging Opposition unity to take on the ruling BJP and save its own ship — Congress is increasingly finding itself as a target of regional parties, some of whom are keen to take the lead Opposition role ahead of 2024 general elections.

Two of Congress's prominent leaders Sushmita Dev and Luizinho Falerio, one each from the youth brigade and the team of veterans, joined Trinamool Congress in the past month, further depleting its strength in North East and Goa. The party's efforts to now induct fresh blood from outside, like Kanhaiya Kumar, has prompted another ally Rashtriya Janata Dal to call Congress "a sinking ship".

TMC, which has poached a number of Congress leaders including a former MLA this month, has recently been repeatedly taking digs at Rahul Gandhi, with the latest being a reminder of Gandhi's defeat in Amethi in 2019 polls.

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TMC has assiduously been projecting Mamata Banerjee as an alternative to Narendra Modi-led BJP in 2024 and its leaders have refused to attend many meetings of Opposition parties held by Rahul Gandhi and questioned his leadership umpteen times.

Congress, which had lost its Opposition space first to TMC in West Bengal and then in Tripura, has alternated for a tie up with Banerjee's party and Left Front in the last two decades. West Bengal unit is divided on the issue.

Rahul Gandhi inducted Kanhaiya, former JNUSU President and CPI's runner-up candidate from Begusarai (Bihar) in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls last month into Congress. The induction irked its lead ally in Bihar Lalu Prasad's RJD, which had declined to back Kanhaiya's candidature as a joint Opposition candidate in the last Lok Sabha polls.

Political pundits had seen this then as an attempt by Tejashwi Yadav, who leads the Opposition in Bihar, to block the emergence of another popular youth leader.

Congress, which was blamed for putting spokes in the Opposition's performance in the 2020 Assembly polls with its poor tally, has long-term interests in inducting Kanhaiya as it seeks to rebuild the party in a state where it is out of power on its own since March 1990. Congress had fought 70 assembly seats then but had won less than 20 seats, which led the RJD to accuse it of 'arm-twisting' and "spoiling" victory chances of the Mahagathbandhan.

The party's dalliance with RJD and JDU in the last 30 years has not helped it grow and became a marginal force, many believe, advocating a go-alone policy.

"This classical dilemma of Congress about going it alone or tying up with like-minded parties is an enigma that the party finds difficult to unravel. It's chicken and egg question for Congress, which is organisationally on a deathbed in states like Bihar and needs an immediate shot of power to stay on and hence, an alliance is required. But dependence on socialist allies has also taken away its space and somebody it has to go for a total shake-up and prepare for a long haul to reclaim its glory," says political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.

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Soon after the induction of Kanhaiya Kumar, RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari dismissed its importance likening him to "another Navjot Singh Sidhu" and calling Congress a "sinking ship" that has "no future".

After the sharp reaction, RJD also unilaterally announced its candidates for two seats in the upcoming Assembly by-polls. Congress was quick to follow it up by announcing its own candidates for both the seats.

Congress, which has been explaining that RJD was kept in the loop over Kanhaiya Kumar's induction in the party, has also maintained that Kanhaiya will be addressing at least 10 rallies during the by-polls. BJP in all glee is playing up the difference between the two allies and maintaining that RJD is jittery over attempts by the Congress to come out of its shadow.

However, both allies know the need to stick together for big polls, hence, the meeting of Rahul Gandhi on Friday with RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

A photo on social media showed the RJD chief clasping the hand of Rahul, engaged in an animated chat with the other hand raised towards him.

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Lalu Prasad had shared excellent relations with Sonia and was among the first to have strongly defended her during the controversy raised by the BJP about her foreign origin.

Apparently, the message was the larger Opposition unity remains unbreached even as the two allies contest Assembly bypolls in the state independently this time.

Rahul Gandhi also visited former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag Paswan on his father's death anniversary the same day, a development that came amid growing distance between Chirag and BJP after the Modi government inducted Chirag's rebel uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras as Union Minister.

In the past, it was a personal visit of Sonia Gandhi to Ram Vilas Paswan (she had walked to her neighbour Paswan's residence then) that had got LJP into the UPA fold in 2004. But then, much water has flown down the Ganges since then and Congress already in a crisis of sorts, both electorally and internally, needs to do much more than the play of symbolism.