The unprecedented fall of Congress across the country lies in its high command. On one hand BJP follows a democratic process to elect its party president and on the other hand in Congress only the Nehru-Gandhi family is entitled to possess this position. Since 2000, eight different people have led BJP as party president. In Congress, only two people, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, have led the party for the same period.
Recently in an interview to Indian Express, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, while replying to a question on Congress' poor performance in Bihar assembly elections, said that the people of the country, not just in Bihar but wherever by-elections were held, obviously don't consider the Congress to be an effective alternative. “A colleague of mine who is a part of the CWC made a statement the other day that ‘I hope the Congress introspects’. If for six years the Congress has not introspected what hope do we have for introspection now? We know what is wrong with the Congress,” he further added. Not only Sibal, Senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad in an interview to the news agency ANI said, "Our party's structure has collapsed. We need to rebuild our structure and then if any leader is elected in that structure, it will work." In recent days many leaders within the Congress party have been seen to be vocal regarding structural changes in the party.
Here it is worth mentioning that after the defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi quit as the Congress president and Sonia Gandhi became interim president. Despite Sonia Gandhi as interim president Congress's fortune remained the same and it has performed worse in recently held elections where central leadership plays a role in winning elections. On the other hand, in BJP, when Amit Shah became Home Minister, Jagat Prakash Nadda was elected as Party President. And since then BJP has performed better and better. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar led BJP and JDU coalition formed the government for the fourth time and BJP has also swept by-elections in different states. In Uttar Pradesh by-polls, BJP won six of the seven seats. In Gujarat, BJP bagged all 8 seats. In Telangana, BJP won Dubbak Assembly constituency in by-poll.
The unprecedented fall of Congress across the country lies in its high command. On one hand BJP follows a democratic process to elect its party president and on the other hand in Congress only the Nehru-Gandhi family is entitled to possess this position. Since 2000, eight different people have led BJP as party president. In Congress, only two people, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, have led the party for the same period.
Since 2014, trust in high command has been seen as a big difference between BJP and Congress leadership. Congress has won in only those states where it has local leadership, who work on its own, and wherever Congress does not have local leadership, it has collapsed. BJP still remains a strong force in those states where it has local leadership. However, the biggest surprise is that it has emerged as a bigger alternative in those states where it had no local leadership earlier and all the credit for this goes to BJP high command. Therefore, the conclusion is that BJP high command is capable of winning state elections even without local leadership. And Congress high command is unable to grab voters' attention where it has no local leadership. It may be because of the party's inability to develop its organisations.
Since 2014, BJP has handed over key responsibilities to its young party leaders. Today, the number of youth leaders in BJP has increased day by day. In Congress, the Nehru-Gandhi family and senior Congress leaders still hold key positions, and young leadership is struggling to get a decisive role in the party. Departure of Jyotiraditya Scindia because of senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamalnath is a perfect example. Sachin Pilot who played a vital role in bringing Congress to power in Rajasthan was not inducted as CM. In place of Pilot, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot was given responsibility of the state.
In recent years, Congress through many sources pointed out that it will work on UP to revive the party and for this Rahul’ sister Priyanka Vadra herself has taken responsibility. But if one looks at the past years, UP has always been an easy destination for Priyanka Vadra. She has been campaigning in the state for her mother and brother for years. The fact is that Congress is psychologically trying to project her as a second alternative for the party after Rahul Gandhi. Having said that, despite Congress' Priyanka card, many party leaders in recently held UP by-polls managed to garner only one to two thousand votes. Therefore, it is clear that Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi are not capable of reviving the party and perhaps this is the reason why many Congress leaders have started raising their voices.
By Ravi Mishra
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