Lack of transparency and inept handling by the Congress high command is causing regional satraps to act with defiance. ‘Eeint se eeint baja doonga’ is the rallying cry of Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. In Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot seems to have made up his mind to run for Congress leadership. With Pilot’s bid to become Rajasthan Congress chief, the power struggle between him and ailing chief minister Ashok Gehlot will heat up.
To break Rajasthan’s logjam, the Congress wanted Gehlot to allow Pilot supporters into his council of ministers, removing Pilot from the state’s politics by making him AICC general secretary responsible for Gujarat’s election, or head of the AICC’s media department. In communication with the leadership, Pilot informed them, that he is willing to campaign from Kashmir to Kanyakumari or from Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district to Sir Creek in Kutch as a ‘loyal soldier’ of the party.
LEADERSHIP TUSSLE
Chattisgarh is the latest addition to the list of Congress-ruled states like Punjab and Rajasthan where virtually everyone associated with the party has turned unhappy and agitated. According to optics, the worst day for the Gandhi family was Friday (August 27, 2021) when Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was summoned to Delhi amid reports of a change of guard. Having landed in Delhi armed with more than 50 party members, the chief minister returned to the state capital on Saturday amid uncertainty. In effect, this implies Baghel commanded the confidence of over 50 Congress MLAs, even after AICC general secretary, PL Punia, had requested them not to go to Delhi.
SONIA GANDHI’S ROLE?
At 24, Akbar Road, there is a simple question but no credible answer. Would it be more advisable for Sonia Gandhi, the interim chief of the AICC, to participate in Chhattisgarh discussions instead of having it at a Wayanad MP’s home? The Gandhi trio, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka can be said to be representing the political can be said to represent political leadership of the Congress. This is true, however, a meeting at 10, Janpath or 24, Akbar Road would have given a sense of institutional and organizational hierarchy. Rahul has once again been exposed as a leader who is unwilling to return as the 87th president of the AICC for some inexplicit reasons and yet enjoys all the authority vested in the office currently held by his mother.
KULFI-LADEN PROMISES
For a full understanding of the Chhattisgarh tussle, it is necessary to go back to December 12, 2018. Rahul had barely been the Congress president for a year when the party won elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. People were celebrating victory with kulfi as the race for chief minister posts got underway. A high-profile wedding was also on the agenda for the top leadership. The young guns and aspirants like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot were also served kulfi with the promise that at an appropriate time (after 2019 Lok Sabha elections) their claims to head Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments will be considered. Scindia subsequently lost patience and toppled the Kamal Nath regime in Madhya Pradesh while Pilot still remains waiting for the kulfi-laced promise to be realised.
ROTATIONAL CHIEF MINISTERSHIP
Chhattisgarh was a comprehensive Congress victory, but its selection of its chief minister was convoluted. The Grand Old Party is prone to making simple tasks complicated, so a simple headcount of newly elected Congress MLAs was not conducted. According to reports, former Lok Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge appointed Tamradhwaj Sahu as new chief minister of Chhattisgarh. There was a sort of mayhem. Rival sides appealed and argued. The incumbent of the Congress president’s chair reportedly told the other aspirants to thrash it out among themselves and come up with a consensus decision. From then on, conflicting and contradictory claims and counterclaims have been made.
In essence, TS Singh Deo is said to have discussed rotating and sharing power on a two-and-three-year basis (with the first tenure person holding a shorter lease). Rahul appears to have discarded it. Regardless of what Rahul Gandhi decides, Baghel said he will comply. A written record of proceedings is not a tradition in the political culture of Congress.
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Baghel was sworn in as chief minister of Chhattisgarh. Due to tactical or wishful considerations, he believed that the issue of rotation was buried and his term would last until December 2023. Punia and Singh Deo have tried to move the goalposts by stating that the rotational promise is not the issue. The story takes a bizarre turn here. Why has Baghel’s exit generated so much buzz when, in another state with a party-controlled administration, Gehlot (before his illness) could not even convince his council of ministers to expand?
Pilot, however, is waiting for his kulfi plus agreement, which Scindia will not ask for. In the course of a week, the Congress has three individuals – Sidhu, Pilot, and Baghel – who are otherwise loyal and heavily indebted to the Gandhis, cast off on their own and sinking in a world of uncertainty and possibly defiance.
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