The more it changes, the more it remains the same. The Congress has carried out a long-delayed but a seemingly half-hearted reshuffle in the party secretariat. Ironically, it comes in the backdrop of a hat-trick of defeats in state polls. Only two general secretaries have been added and a few in-charges for various states have been replaced. The million-dollar question is, can this team strengthen the hands of Rahul Gandhi, who is going through a rough patch after being at his peak in June last year as his party secured 99 seats in the Lok Sabha polls?
Friends In Right Places?
One thing is apparent in the new order: Gandhi has tried to stitch up his own trusted team, bringing to the fore several associates who had been working with him behind the scenes. A complaint with Gandhi had been that he often failed to carry the party with him; some observers even insist that he and the Congress are two separate entities. Now, with his own men firmly in place, that perception might change.
Interestingly, many of the new entrants are leaders who represent disadvantaged or minority sections. Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has been appointed the new general secretary of Punjab, while Syed Naseer Hussain, also appointed general secretary, will handle Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu is the new in-charge of Odisha, while B.K. Hariprasad from Karnataka, who has been a veteran at the AICC Secretariat and has handled many states in various capacities, has been given the charge of Haryana, a tricky territory. Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka will handle Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura and Nagaland. He is the only Lok Sabha MP of the party from Odisha.
Also, former Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Natrajan has been made in charge of Telangana, while K. Raju, the national coordinator of the party's SC, ST, OBC, and Minorities cell, is the new in-charge of Jharkhand. Krishna Allavaru has been handed Bihar, and Girish Chodankar Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Finally, senior leader Rajni Patil has been given the charge of Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, and Harish Chaudhary has been made in-charge of Madhya Pradesh.
Wheels Within Wheels
Can this reshuffle change the fate of the Congress? That's debatable. When it comes to the grand old party, there are wheels within wheels, and the organisation cannot be run without the first family in the driver's seat. Mallikarjun Kharge might be the Congress President, but when it comes to the organisation, the man who runs the show is K.C. Venugopal, the General Secretary (Organisation) and the blue-eyed boy of the Gandhi family. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might also be one of the general secretaries, but in reality, her stature is much more than that, though her exact role in the new scheme of things is still unclear. The issue of accountability has hardly bothered the Congress in the party.
In general, in the new appointments, the talk is that the old guard has been ignored because Gandhi was not very comfortable with leaders who have been senior in age and experience. The appointment of Kharge two years ago is another story. Those changes took place at a time when the Congress was gasping and wanted a drastic overhaul.
How Serious Is Congress About Bihar
Two things stand out in the new appointments.
One, the party had lost Chhattisgarh when Baghel was the chief minister and also couldn't improve its state tally in the Lok Sabha under his leadership. He was involved in the recent Maharashtra elections too, where the Congress again failed. Now, ironically, he has been given charge of Punjab at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would work hard to stop the Congress's rise.
Two, Bihar. It is another key poll-bound state in the Hindi belt, but the Congress, a junior player there, is relying on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to challenge the BJP. Rahul Gandhi had recently called on Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son, Tejashwi, to cement the bond. Given that the new Bihar in-charge, Allavaru, is not a heavyweight in the party and will likely work on the directions of the AICC might mean that the Congress is content to play second fiddle to regional parties in Bihar. The same goes for Puducherry too.
Soul-Searching Needed
Some 15 years back, V. Kishore Chandra Deo, who was General Secretary in charge of Bihar, had insisted that the party was "not a doormat” for Lalu's RJD in the state. Many would argue against that today.
And herein lies the party's key affliction. There has not been a single soul-searching exercise in the Congress since May 2014, when the emergence of Narendra Modi on the national scene resulted in the Congress's near-decimation. The formation of the INDIA bloc was in itself yet another admission that the Congress cannot defeat the BJP on its own.
The party's problems run deep, which mere cosmetic changes cannot fix. The appointment of two general secretaries and nine in-charges is hardly enough to enthuse workers. They may be trusted lieutenants of Rahul Gandhi, but whether they will be useful to the organisation at a time when the future of the INDIA bloc looks uncertain and the party is staring at an existential crisis in states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, is debatable. In any case, party president Kharge has already warned the new appointees that office-bearers would be held “accountable” for future elections in their respective states.
All in all, a team is as good as its leader. More than anything else, this experiment can be as much a test for Rahul Gandhi as for the Congress.
(Sunil Gatade is a former associate editor with PTI. Venkatesh Kesari was an assistant editor with The Asian Age.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
