Congress on suicidal path

KS Tomar 

It is a known fact that Congress leaders and workers are at their best when they want to defeat their own nominees in any election and they seem to be working sincerely in this direction in Himachal Pradesh.

Keeping in view the intense infighting coupled with the complete mess in the Congress affairs in Himachal Pradesh, AICC President Rahul Gandhi’s optimism about winning the maximum Lok Sabha seats in the state may end up as a far-fetched dream. 

It is a known fact that Congress leaders and workers are at their best when they want to defeat their own nominees in any election and they seem to be working sincerely in this direction in Himachal Pradesh.

The BJP cadres are even better at this task when they are supported by a disciplined and well-oiled machinery of the RSS. But at present the Congress is on a suicidal path and Rahul’s choice of Rajni Patil as the new in charge of Himachal affairs of the Congress has surprised many, which can be attributed to Patil’s past track record as the Pradesh Returning Officer in 2010 when organisational polls had raised suspicion about fairness and neutrality. 

Political analysts are debating one point. Why did the party High Command appoint Patil as the in charge of the Himachal Congress? Is it a signal to sideline former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who had reservations about her? The High Command has also removed the co-in charge of the party affairs, Ranjeet Ranjan, considered a sympathiser of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and appointed Gurkirat Singh, who is the grandson of late former Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant  Singh.

After the utter failure of senior leader Sushil Kumar Shinde as the in charge of Himachal, now a stupendous task has been assigned to Patil to bring warring factions together to deliver the desired results in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress is clearly divided in two factions, which are being led by six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and PCC chief Sukhinder Singh ‘sukhu’. The negative fallout of infighting in the party was visible during the Assembly poll in November 2017. Shinde unsuccessfully tried to forge unity in the Congress and made efforts to win over former Union Communications Minister Sukh Ram, a move which backfired as political and personal enmity between Virbhadra Singh and Sukh Ram became a big hurdle. Ram’s son Anil Shama, a minister in the Congress government, joined the BJP on the eve of Assembly elections and successfully fought from the Mandi Sadar seat. Now he is enjoying fruits of power in the BJP regime also.

Patil recently addressed several meetings, including those of party MLAs, former legislators and office-bearers, etc, which were not attended by the former Chief Minister and some of his loyalists. Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri was also conspicuous by his absence on the first day, as he was on a tour to a southern state, but he did attend the meetings on the second day.

Agnihotri is a staunch loyalist of the former Chief Minister and is openly siding with his mentor to remove Sukhu. The tussle between the former Chief Minister and the PCC chief has already damaged the party and the impact will be serious if the new in charge of the party fails to convince both the leaders to bury their hatchet in view of the 2019 parliamentary polls. 

Virbhadra Singh seems to be adamant on his demand to sack Sukhu, but the High Command has preferred to retain him. Sukhu is being backed by the anti-Virbhadra lobby, including Vidya Stokes, Anand Sharma, Kaul Singh, GS Bali, Ram Lal Thakur, etc.

If a divided Congress takes on the BJP, then the outcome can be predicted even today and ignoring the mass-base support of the former Chief Minster may prove a blessing in disguise for the BJP, which has got the advantage of an effective leader, Narendra Modi, at the Centre and a strong back-up of the RSS to retain all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh. 

(The writer is a senior journalist. Views are personal)