What Next?

He may be down but is certainly not out. March 20th is the last day for well-wishing Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh to give their 'honest' feedback to Rahul Gandhi on the electoral debacle in the state. Whispers in the Congress corridors indicate that the initiative for this exercise has come from the Gandhi scion himself who is quite upset with those who helped craft the 'failed' UP poll strategy. Not wanting to waste time, Rahul wants an extended Congress Working Committee meeting during the budget session to address vital issues affecting the Congress' performance ahead of the 2014 general elections.

 

Congress has performed poorly in every state (barring Manipur) that went to polls. But it is the dismal performance in UP that has pinched the party where it hurts most. Disbelieving party pundits watched with growing horror as they stumbled and slipped to fourth position in the state despite a high decibel campaign and innumerable photo ops with Rahul Gandhi at the helm.

 

While the agenda for the proposed CWC meet includes the party performance in UP elections, relations with other parties and looming Presidential elections, there is more to it than meets the eye. The forum is likely to be used to apportion blame and fix responsibility for Congress' no-show in the state. Sources inform that Rahul has especially invited those who had resigned from the party in the run-up to the elections due to discontent over ticket distribution and even those who had opposed the party's strategy for the polls. The ones who had suppressed these dissident voices and ostensibly kept the party away from the ground reality in UP have been especially invited (no doubt to face the flak) and include key party faces in UP and Delhi.

 

Indications are that strict action will be taken against some and a few Congressmen who claim proximity with the Gandhi family may find themselves sitting out on the benches. In contrast, those who voice themselves without fear or favour may find their way into the party mainstream. Some such leaders like Rita Bahuguna Joshi have already begun expressing their displeasure at the manner in which senior leaders made damning statements during the campaign. “Some leaders came up with statements that should not have been voiced. It did not help the party,” she told TSI.

 

Discussions at the meeting will predictably be geared towards course-correction in view of the upcoming general elections. Party insiders say that an evident fallout of the poor poll performance is that Rahul is likely to restart his efforts to form the Congress of his dreams. Implicit is the promise that the process of reorganising the party with a focus on committed young workers may gain momentum much sooner.

 

In Delhi, the process to elect youth leaders at booth-level and for assembly areas and parliamentary constituencies is already underway. Senior leaders have deliberately been kept away from these elections. The same is likely to be replicated in other states. Sources say chances are high that these elected 'youth' faces will be inducted into the party's central committee, while senior leaders may be coerced into advisory roles.

 

The reason is simple. Rahul is unhappy with his party's performance in UP elections. He feels that trusted senior leaders did not give practical advice and their out-of-turn comments did not help the party. Buzz is that Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, who stirred up a controversy by his comments about President's rule in UP if Congress fails to get a majority, may find himself eased out of a key role in the party in days to come. Congress in-charge for UP, Digvijay Singh, is also in the eye of a storm. A large section of the Congress, particularly those who envied Singh his proximity to 10 Janpath, want Digvijay to take moral responsibility and resign. Other senior party leaders who made headlines with their comments are Beni Prasad Verma and Salman Khurshid.

 

Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi believes that controversial statements by senior leaders hurt the party's image. “Even after the high command's opinion, some people did not stop speaking against constitutional institutions," he told TSI, adding that such comments it did not have a positive impact on voters.

 

The point is that in the run-up to 2014, Congress has lost faith in all its 22 sitting MPs in UP, including Beni Prasad, Sanjay Singh, Khurshid and cricketer-turned-MP Mohd Azharuddin. The party had given these bigwigs the responsibility of helping candidates from their areas win elections. Even tickets were given to their choice candidates. But when Verma and Azharuddin were hooted at in Gonda and Moradabad respectively during campaigning, a perturbed Rahul realised that all was not well. Early in the campaign, he even took them to task for preferring to spend time in Delhi instead of mobilising voters at the ground level in their constituencies.

 

Rahul has reason to be angry. After all, he had painstakingly endeavoured to boost the party's poll prospects since 2009. When Rahul entered the party organisation, a committee christened “Challenges for Future” was formed with senior leaders at the helm. Later, when UP polls in 2012 were seen as a challenge, it was decided to discover the opportunities inherent in this challenge. So the committee was renamed “Committee on Opportunity between Challenges.” The bid was to find the Congress opportunity in UP.

 

What followed was three years of research and painstaking effort. To counter the MY (Muslim-Yadav) factor, Congress roped in anthropologist Yogendra Yadav and consulted several experts from different universities. Candidates were selected based on the concept of social engineering to woo different castes. A team of 50 monitors was formed to suggest what should Rahul say and do in his public meetings.

 

Eventually, Rahul Gandhi addressed over 257 public meetings in UP and three dozen leaders went out on massive campaign trails using helicopters that charged at the rate of one lakh rupees per hour. The question is how did a strategy formulated after two years of extensive research fail in the first place? And why even after spending so much does the party find itself almost where it was in the 2007 polls? If Rahul Gandhi is miffed and wants answers from party leaders and advisors, he's well within his rights. Stand by for some fireworks and a few crestfallen faces at the extended CWC meeting.