A missed opportunity: Congress votes for status quo

Mallikarjun Kharge's election as party president points to the continuation of Gandhi family hegemony with all its opacity and confusions ever since Rahul Gandhi stepped down as president in 2019

At a time when identity politics dominates Indian political contests like never before, the foregone conclusion of Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge’s election as Congress president checks the right boxes. As a Dalit and Buddhist with a long career in the Karnataka Assembly and the Centre, and briefly as leader of the Opposition in Parliament, he appears to have — on paper — the requisite political experience to lead the Grand Old Party against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) juggernaut. Yet Mr Kharge’s victory, securing 7,897 votes to challenger Shashi Tharoor’s 1,072 votes, comes freighted with extremely low expectations. As the favoured candidate of the Gandhi family, the choice of Mr Kharge, 80, was driven less by any organisational talent and dynamism but for his steadfast dynastic loyalty and non-controversial personality. The post of Congress president can be viewed as a reward for losing out three times for the chief ministership of Karnataka in the past. Nothing in his long career or the current campaign points to the radical independent thought needed to bring about the urgently needed reform of the party to present a cogent nationwide challenge to the BJP. His response to a question about the G23 ginger group within the party that his opponent represented was to deny its existence. History repeated itself with allegations of irregularities by the losing candidate.

The installation of Mr Kharge as party president points to the continuation of Gandhi family hegemony with all its opacity and confusions ever since Rahul Gandhi stepped down as president (he was unelected) following the debacle of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Though his mother stepped back into her old role, Mr Gandhi remained an informal centre of considerable power without much responsibility. His sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, appears to have emerged as another power centre. Neither sibling has shown much aptitude for leadership. Mr Gandhi has much to answer for the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia, once a close ally, to the BJP. That cost the Congress Madhya Pradesh. His inept management of the controversy concerning challenger Navjyot Singh Sidhu and then Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh cost the party not only the state but also the loss of one of the Congress’ most talented and respected politicians. Ms Vadra, too, has some explaining to do on account of the party’s abysmal performance in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

In any other party, that record would have resulted in a sidelining; instead Ms Vadra remains All India Congress Committee general secretary and even inaugurated the party’s campaign for the Himachal elections last week. To be sure, it is unclear how far Dr Tharoor could have revived the party, given his limited national base. But at an energetic 66, his courageous decision to campaign as a rebel points to a willingness to take risks and explore fresh ideas within the traditional Congress “broad church” tent, beyond the anodyne soft Hindutva, which currently passes as electoral strategy. The party desperately needs ideas not only to counter the BJP in elections but also for playing its role in the opposition effectively. However, in overwhelmingly rubber-stamping the Gandhi family candidate, the Congress party rank and file has missed an opportunity in this first presidential election in over two decades.