Congress’ failure proof that it has refused to learn from past mistakes

The Maharashtra poll outcome serves as a death knell for the I.N.D.I.A. bloc putting the Congress to its pre-June 4 status as a party facing existential crisis

With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress already distancing themselves from the I.N.D.I.A. bloc and the Congress, the Opposition remained fragmented and demoralised. In this context, the alliance’s electoral setback in Maharashtra is most telling, and hard hitting.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Udhav Thackeray and his supporters must be cursing their decision taken five years ago to break ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when the national party was giving them all importance and accommodation, except, of course, the chief minister’s post.

On Saturday, Thackeray was reduced to a king without a kingdom, after his faction performed poorly in the polls. His effort to junk Hindutva and majoritarian politics had few takers. This must be music for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, and several other. Had the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) returned to power, the BJP and the Sangh parivar ecosystem would have struggled to counter Thackeray and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc on majoritarian politics.

There are numerous takeaways of what exactly went wrong within the Opposition camp. Much like the Haryana debacle, the Congress’ reliance on its poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu proved costly. The party, it seems, learnt no lessons from Haryana where a lot of complaints were made relating to faulty candidate selection. In fact, in one of the meetings relating to ticket distribution, Rahul Gandhi mocked a party leader for questioning Kanugolu's assessment. AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who has much blame to share, was, however, kept out of the ticket distribution exercise. 

The Congress made too many tactical mistakes in Maharashtra. Not projecting a chief ministerial face was one. The MVA was formed in 2019 with Udhav Thackeray as its chief ministerial face. If there was a rethink or if the Congress aimed for the coveted post of the chief minister, it should have been made public. Instead, Rahul Gandhi in his characteristic style, kept saying in private how the grand old party should learn to make ‘sacrifices’ in states (implying forgoing the CM’s post), while the Maharashtra state unit leaders kept fighting among themselves.

Reports of Congress Maharashtra party chief Nana Patole not being on the same page as Thackeray and NCP’s Sharad Pawar kept hitting headlines even as Rahul Gandhi and Kharge looked the other way. This approach harmed the MVA.

Kanugolu gave no talking point or a theme song for Maharashtra, even as the BJP’s campaigners talked about ‘Batenge to katenge’ and ‘Ek hai to safe hai’ to consolidate the majority community votes. Some of the Muslim leaders and clerics, leaning towards the MVA made some atrocious remarks that helped the BJP build a narrative to bring a majoritarian narrative.

The Congress leadership, instead of understanding the political import of the BJP’s focus on 'Ek hai to safe hai’, remained dismissive. They failed to see how the BJP-RSS closed ranks, fanning out to every taluk to get that extra vote. The sustained efforts bore fruits while the MVA protagonists kept gloating over the Lok Sabha verdict that had given them 31 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The I.N.D.I.A. bloc (the Congress in particular) failed to set a narrative, the way they had managed during the Lok Sabha polls. The issues of reservations and the threat to the Constitution were not talking points because the Assembly is not empowered to bring constitutional amendments.

Similarly, the issue of corruption or the focus on businessman Gautam Adani yet again failed to find traction with the voters. Corruption becomes an electoral issue when it directly affects the individual; e.g. corruption leading to inflation. It was also not the case in the rafale deal. Different schemes introduced by the state government, like Ladli-Behna Yojana, worked for the Maha Yuti. This also led to an increase in popularity of incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

It would be wrong to attribute the BJP-led alliance’s victory to Hindutva alone. If that was the case, the NDA would have won in Jharkhand as well. The victory in Maharashtra is a result of a strong local leadership working in unison. The RSS also played an important role where, just like in Haryana, it held thousands of sabhas to push the BJP’s agenda at the ground level.

Rahul Gandhi is not learning from his past mistakes. His continued trust in Konugolu has yet again let down the party. During the middle of the Maharashtra election campaign, Kanugolu reportedly conveyed to the Congress high command that Rahul Gandhi will only focus on Maharashtra and not Jharkhand. All these have resulted in the Congress performing its worst ever in Maharashtra, and managing to stay in power in Jharkhand because of the JMM.

The MVA’s loss could also mean the end of road for the I.N.D.I.A. bloc and Sharad Pawar. The veteran politician ended up getting upstaged by nephew Ajit Pawar much like N Chandrababu Naidu humbled N T Ramarao in Andhra Pradesh in 1995. Pawar senior and Thackeray have reasons to believe that they performed badly because of the alliance with the Congress, and not the other way round.

Organisationally, the Congress has little to no talent left. Leaders like Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel who were overseeing the Maharashtra elections for the party, have failed again. Gehlot, after losing Rajasthan as chief minister, has now lost both Haryana and Maharashtra under his watch. The Congress high command is, however, unlikely to bench Gehlot for various reasons.

Rasheed Kidwai is an author and journalist.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH).

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Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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