After a long gap, the Congress has finally voted for the new president of the party. Mallikarjun Kharge’s victory is significant in many ways. He is the first non-Gandhi chief of the party, founded in 1885, in nearly a quarter century. As the first Dalit leader to hold office in 50 years, his election carries a symbolic charge, given how burdensome the party is on its image as a privilege. The victory of a veteran Karnataka leader also pushes the right federal button, at a time when our north-south divide in politics is widening. The result of the vote was clear. Kharge secured almost eight times the number of votes as his rival Shashi Tharoor. The winner entered the fray after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, seen as a credible choice of the Gandhi family, was eliminated, resulting in Kharge being seen as the ‘unofficial official candidate’. Tharoor presented himself as a subversive, but his campaign for change seems to have resonated only with a small minority of the roughly 9,400 delegates who voted. Maybe, there’s the rub. Will favoring a cautious incremental change that Kharge represents will be enough for a party that faces a staggering challenge of relevance?
The nearly 140-year-old party, which was once a great tent of ideas and persuasion, led a mass movement for India’s independence, and came to define the country’s structure for a secular polity, is in crisis. . It remains in power in only two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. In the last Lok Sabha election, its number was reduced to 52 seats, less than the minimum 10% required to achieve the post of Leader of the Opposition. In many states, it was overtaken not only by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but also by regional parties in third place. It is not to argue that voters uncomfortable with saffron nationalism are losing faith in the Congress’s ability to take on the BJP. It is not that the politics of India seems to be leaning in the right direction. In a country with many inequalities and even greater aspirations, the BJP has tapped a vein of resentment against an old elite, seen as thugs and sly ones. The portrayal of the Congress as a party under dynastic control allows a contrasting projection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a strong leader who was born from among the people. That is why many Congress well-wishers were eager to signal to the old party that it was ready for change, new ideas and above all, a credible revival plan.
Kharge’s challenges are formidable. His work is to catalyze a new vision of the Congress’s place in the ‘New India’, to refresh the old discourse of social justice, inclusion, secularism and economic development for the new generation, to intensify and clarify and transform the idea of India. Party without bloodshed. This requires both conceptual clarity and practicality. Kharge’s long record as a consensus figure of Karnataka politics may come in handy in negotiating a number of demands from various power centers within the party. What cannot happen under his presidency should be seen as the rubber-stamp of the Gandhi family. While some Congress leaders dismissed the Kharge-versus-Tharoor contest as a “partisanship” to the real thing, Rahul Gandhi’s visit to India did not allow the Congress to maul another round of conspiracy theories about the efforts of an elected president. should not affect and risk an extended exposure. Power weather without accountability. It needs a return mark. To fabricate has to focus on the implications of failure.
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