No responsibility for losses: Cong woes go beyond rifts
Jalandhar: Having lost another byelection, the Congress appears to be showing remarkable consistency in its refusal to learn lessons. There is little hidden about discord within the party's state unit, and knives are being unsheathed, though carefully and in a calibrated manner.
However, its problems go beyond factionalism, and the buck does not stop with state leadership, but goes up to its central leadership.
The grand-old party has been consistent in not analysing its performance and not holding anybody accountable after big losses. After the party showed its worst performance in the 2022 assembly elections, when its vote share dropped to just 23%, there was no objective review or analysis of the reasons for the defeat.
Before Ludhiana West, Congress lost four assembly and two parliamentary bypolls, but no questions were asked; none was held accountable, and nothing was heard about an objective analysis. This happened even as the party lost Jalandhar, its strongest parliamentary seat in Punjab. The only byelection Congress won was the Barnala assembly seat last year, where the only reason for its victory was an AAP rebel in the battle.
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In the parliamentary elections, the main factors on the ground were Sikhs and Dalits remaining apprehensive of BJP, and the element of anti-incumbency working against AAP govt in the state. Though a few party leaders publicly sought introspection and objective analysis of the results, arguing that the party could get just 26.3% vote share and win only from 38 assembly segments, nothing was heard about any meeting for the purpose.
Before the 2022 assembly elections, amid the farm movement, there was a strong yearning in Punjab for a qualitative shift in politics, which party leader Rahul Gandhi was articulating. However, when it came to translating those ideas on the ground, Congress stuck to its old template and arguments of communal and caste equations while removing a strong regional leader like Capt Amarinder Singh.
Though Capt Amarinder faced strong questions about his govt's performance, rightly so as the 2017 elections were fought in his name and big promises were made, Congress has been missing a leader of his stature, appeal, political acumen, and intellect.
His second tenure appeared to be a case of wasted talent and opportunity.
Factions in Punjab Congress are not bound by an element of affinity or loyalty, but by opposition to one or the other leader. In 2021, the only glue among Congress leaders was opposition to Capt Amarinder. As soon as he was removed, the glue disappeared, and party leaders started grappling with one another. Then, opposition to Navjot Singh Sidhu united quite a few of them, and he was mainly blamed for whatever went wrong with the state Congress, and knives were out against him.
For the last year-and-a-half, Sidhu has been silent on state politics, but Congress remains a house in disorder.
As the principal opposition, Congress has not been able to proactively set the agenda or drive the narrative, even as scores of Punjabi activists and netizens, not aligned with any party, have taken up the mantle and have been giving a tough time to the state govt on several issues. Notwithstanding Rahul Gandhi's articulations at the national level, in which he appears to be taking unconventional, strong, and clear ideological positions, the party in Punjab has not been showing any inclination towards reinventing itself, even as the ground situation in the state appears to be providing a favourable ground for that.
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