Kharge Has A Tough Task At Hand
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-10-21 07:05:02
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The India Commentary view
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Mallikarjun Kharge has been elected the president of the Congress at a time when the party is facing an existential crisis. Apart from successive electoral setbacks, both at national and state levels, it has been rocked by internal problems which have led to high profile leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, to name just two, resigning from the party. In the recent past, the party has also bungled big time in internal policy matters with the Punjab and the recent Rajasthan fiasco being the most damning. It is being pushed to the wall by an aggressive BJP and the equally aggressive regional parties who think that they can occupy the space that is being vacated by a hitherto rudderless party that was unable to come to terms at being out of power for such a long period of time.
Hence, Kharge will have to work on both fronts. He will have to simultaneously set the house in order and devise ways and means to arrest the declining popularity graph of the party. The Congress party is blessed with something that no other party (apart from BJP) has - a robust all-India infrastructure and a sizeable vote share (although declining in each successive election). But the main problem is that due to successive electoral setbacks since 2014 and its incoherent and tepid response to BJP's brand aggressive pro-Hindutva and nationalist politics, the party cadre has lost the will to fight. Kharge's first and most urgent response should be to reinvigorate the party from ground up by firing the cadre with enthusiasm. This can only be done if the party is clear in how it wishes to counter the BJP and the regional parties. Since it does not have a magnetic vote-catcher like Narendra Modi, the party will only win if it can convince the people about what it intends to do if elected rather than by just rubbishing what the BJP is doing.
There is no doubt that there must be a strong opposition in a democracy. The Congress was best suited to be the leader of the opposition pack. But it has abdicated that space and allowed others to stake claim by behaving as a poor loser and not behaving as a party that wishes to return to power. Kharge has to change that and ensure that the Congress is able to give the BJP a run for its money in 2024. It must be remembered that the BJP got just 38% vote share nationally in 2019. Hence, there are 62% of Indians who still vote for the opposition. With the right response and strategic alliances, the opposition can still beat the BJP. But given Congress' history, it remains to be seen how effective Kharge can be (and whether he can erase the rubberstamp president tag) and if the Gandhi family allows him the degree of independence necessary to take strong measures to revive the party.
