Jitin Prasada's exit: Congress cannot afford to remain out of power for long

While joining BJP, Jitin Prasada customarily hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "Yashaswi" and Home Minister Amit Shah as "Karmayogi", and he also voiced his desperation at "not being able to do anything for his people" while remaining in Congress with which he had a "three-generation association".

Unlike many of his peers, he chose not to hit out at the Nehru-Gandhi family or Congress work culture.

In Jitin's resignation, the writing on the wall was clear for Congress. It cannot afford to remain out of power for long. While at the Centre, Congress is out of power for only seven years this time, Uttar Pradesh has remained unbound for the party since 1989 after the surge of Mandal-Mandir politics.

"I felt that what is the relevance of staying in a party if you can't protect the interests of your people or work for them. I felt I was unable to do that at Congress. I thank people in Congress who blessed me all these years but now I will work as a dedicated BJP worker," Prasada said.

Read more: BJP to use Jitin Prasada to 'douse' Brahmin 'anger' in Uttar Pradesh

Earlier when Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, who had quit the party after being "let down" by it had also explained her rationale behind joining the Shiv Sena saying since she hailed from Mumbai, her “karmabhoomi”, she always felt connected to the Sena and that she wanted to come back to her roots. "When I thought of coming back, I did not find any organisation better than this and no other better platform than this,” she said.

That was April 2019 when Sena was a BJP ally and Congress in the state appeared in a shambles

That is a real problem. As young Congress leaders find the party getting nowhere in the states, they are looking for options.

Prasada, the 47-year-old leader from Brahmin community (which has kept changing its voting preferences from Congress to BJP to BSP and is now reportedly veering towards SP), tried to revive this caste vote bank back to Congress by launching Brahmin Chetna Parishad in 2020 but it did not cut much ice. Earlier Prasada himself lost Lok Sabha elections twice in 2014 and 2019, besides Assembly Polls in 2017.

Congress has lost polls in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Haryana, and Bihar. In Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, it owes its victory to its ally while in Maharashtra, it is a junior partner in a seemingly unstable ruling coalition.

Many in Congress believe that at Centre Narendra Modi's led BJP's biggest advantage is TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor. UP now seems repeating a similar story with two Opposition alliances SP-Congress in 2017 Assembly polls and BSP-SP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls failing to stop the Modi juggernaut. Pandemic fallout, however, can make a difference if a strong opposition coalition is in place.

Then there are others, who expected a bigger role for themselves in the party for their contribution and could not get it due to old guard- new generation rivalry. Ashok Tanwar, a pick of Rahul Gandhi, who served as Haryana Congress chief for five years but was forced to make way for former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda before the 2019 Assembly polls. He quit the party.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit Congress in March 2020 wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi thanking her for giving him a platform but said he felt he cannot serve people by being in the party.

This was 15 months after he, joining hands with Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath, had brought Congress back to power in Madhya Pradesh after a 15 years gap. The party did not make him either Chief Ministers of the PCC Chief in MP where it was in power.

Soon after Prasada quit the party to join the BJP, Deora though asserted that Congress still has a strong bench which, if empowered and optimally utilised, can deliver but wished that several of his friends, peers and valued colleagues hadn't left the party.

Another Congress leader, Kuldeep Bishnoi tweeted "First @JM_Scindia now @JitinPrasada - huge blows for @incindia as we lose leaders who gave & still had much to give to the Party. Agreed, they shouldn’t have abandoned INC esp during troubled waters. But Congress needs to identify & empower mass leaders to win back states."

Some others, who recently quit are Khushbu Sundar while Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora, the two key members of Rahul's team once, are reportedly unhappy.

The dilemma before the central leadership is that while the young generation is leaving in absence of positions, it is the older generation leaders, which are really performing--be it Hooda in Haryana, Virbhadra Singh in Himachal Pradesh or Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan or past Tarun Gogoi with three consecutive terms as CM in Assam.

The question is how long the old guards will carry the party on their shoulders. In Himachal Pradesh, it now seems a dead-end for the party as Virbadhra Singh is 87 and the party is without an effective second rung of leadership there.

In Assam, once the number two of Congress Himanta Himanta Biswa Sarma is now Chief Minister from BJP while Tarun Gogoi is no more.