Congress must do some soul-searching and get its priorities right

The time for a post-mortem of the recent electoral defeats has long gone, and now one should look ahead. For this, a multi-pronged, stepwise roadmap must be drawn, and responsibilities allocated.

In a couple of video shows on February 8, the day results of the Delhi Assembly elections were announced, I was part of discussion panels featuring Congress spokespersons too. When it became obvious that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was staging a political comeback, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including its leader Arvind Kejriwal, was losing, the faces of Congress’ representatives began to beam. 

After not winning even a single seat, losing its security deposit in 67 of the 70 seats, and cornering a vote share of 6.34 per cent, what reason did the Congress have to be gleeful? It soon became evident that the Congress was overjoyed not at the BJP’s quasi-sweep but because AAP’s bandwagon was stopped and Kejriwal was electorally humiliated.

Kejriwal lost to BJP’s Parvesh Verma by a margin of 4,089 votes while the Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit secured 4,568 votes. Similar was the story in several other seats, suggesting that if AAP and the Congress had forged an alliance, the BJP may have fallen short of majority, and only another ‘Operation Lotus’ could have helped the BJP grab power in Delhi.

The Congress spokespersons not turning circumspect at the third successive Delhi election (2015, 2020 and 2025) where the party failed to win a single seat, is a sign of misplaced priority. It’s clear that the Congress’ primary objective was not to win a few Assembly seats but to defeat AAP.

After almost a decade-and-a-half, the Congress is yet to forget how AAP rose at its expense and the role AAP leaders played in the India Against Corruption movement, which turned the national tide against the grand old party.

It was the party leadership’s failure to convey the message that defeating AAP was not its principal task.

The above episode shows a basic ailment of the Congress — the party does not know its fundamental goal.

Another reason for mentioning Congress’ February 8 reaction is that the party is currently holding meetings of the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) followed by an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Ahmedabad on April 8 and 9.

In these meetings the party must dispassionately review its performances in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Haryana. It must also accept that due to a series of errors, the party allowed the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bounce back after the setback it received in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

I use the word ‘accept’ because there is no explanation for allowing the BJP to sweep Haryana and Maharashtra after the Opposition’s good performance in these two states during the parliamentary polls.

The time for a post-mortem has long gone, and now one should look ahead. For this, a multi-pronged, stepwise roadmap must be drawn, and responsibilities allocated.

To begin with, state satraps must be asked to prioritise national interests over those of the state units. Leaders like Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ajay Maken must be firmly directed that the aim should not be to become chief ministers (or in Maken’s case, block AAP’s path to power), but to first ensure the BJP’s defeat, which would strengthen the Congress nationally; the states would follow.

If the 2024 election story for the BJP was that of the strained ties between Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the return of bread and butter issues in several regions, for the Congress it was Gandhi’s success in reinventing himself and articulating a unambiguous ideological position against Hindutva.

That said, he cannot remain in perpetual yatra-mode, as reports suggest that the plan for a ‘Save Constitution Yatra’, at the conclusion of the AICC session, is at an advanced stage. Gandhi and other Congress leaders must realise that yatras alone cannot yield electoral dividends. For that a party network spread across the country is essential.

Since Gandhi has not displayed interest or the capacity for resurrecting the organisational network, this task should be entrusted to a single leader, ably backed by a core group. There is no harm in picking a leaf or two from the BJP’s playbook — especially how Amit Shah revived the BJP’s moribund network in Uttar Pradesh in 2013-2014.

In the past the Congress has suffered because of factionalism within the party. Gandhi, because he retains considerable influence despite not being party president, should ensure that such coteries do not alienate talent, like, say, Shashi Tharoor.

Finally, the Congress must find ways to make the I.N.D.I.A. bloc an effective conglomerate of opposition parties. If yielding the convenor’s post makes it more forceful, the Congress should not insist on holding on to that office. It is not the leadership of an Opposition front that should be its goal. Congress leaders must aim to trigger the BJP’s decline. Only then can the Congress hope to regain political power, or even become more impactful.

(Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based journalist, is author of 'The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project'. X: @NilanjanUdwin)

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