Congress’ failure to unite INDIA will cost it dear

Rasheed Kidwai

Senior Journalist & Author

THERE are many political lessons to be learnt by both the victor and the vanquished. It is often said, not without reason, that whatever you say or write about India, the opposite can be equally true. Going by the gist of the exit polls (the actual numbers may vary), the Narendra Modi-led NDA and a rainbow INDIA bloc will likely have reasons to respectively, celebrate and repent.

INDIA did its mathematics well, bringing in an element of chemistry too, but it failed to stitch up alliances on the eastern coast. The BJP — having barely 1 per cent of the vote share in Andhra Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections — did well to rope in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP). On the other hand, INDIA remained ‘friendless’, even though Jagan Mohan Reddy had belonged to the Congress parivar of yesteryear.

A quick recap of the Congress-Jagan parting is in order. Jagan’s father, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was a devout Congress leader and a Gandhi family favourite since the time of Rajiv Gandhi. When he died in an air crash, the majority of the Congress MLAs in the then undivided Andhra wanted son Jagan (a Lok Sabha MP then) to take over as the Chief Minister. This would have been a democratic move, but the Congress leadership — known to complicate simple things — crowned K Rosaiah as CM. Rahul Gandhi, who was the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary then, reportedly took a stand against dynasty, pointing out how the son of an incumbent CM taking his place would set a wrong precedent.

In September 2009, the Congress was in power in over a dozen states. Earlier this year, instead of going in for conciliation or overtures, the Congress leadership propped up Jagan’s sister Sharmila as the state party chief. As per exit polls, the Congress is getting 2 per cent of the vote share, just enough to down or demolish Jagan and get the TDP-JSP-BJP the bulk of the Lok Sabha seats.

In neighbouring Odisha, a similar story (no seats) is possibly in store for INDIA — with the BJP walking away with the majority of the Lok Sabha seats. The collapse of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the state may or may not happen, but the INDIA grouping’s failure to bring the BJD on its side remains glaring. In fact, when Nitish Kumar was part of INDIA, he went to Bhubaneswar to initiate talks, but there was no follow-up. Even more shocking was INDIA’s silence when PM Modi brought up Naveen Patnaik’s illness and the need for an investigation while addressing a public meeting. Modi’s comment was seen as politically incorrect.

If Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fails to hold on to the Bengal bastion in the Lok Sabha polls, she will have reasons to blame herself. But the INDIA bloc’s failure to work out a tripartite alliance in Bengal was baffling. Mamata had asked the Congress to share its quota of seats with the Left parties, but the move was shelved. In December last year, Mamata took the lead in pushing for Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name as INDIA’s prime ministerial candidate. She was backed by Delhi CM and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, but the Congress downplayed the matter. Kharge said: “Let’s win first, the PM face will be discussed later.”

The Mamata-Congress confrontation is even more surprising in view of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader’s emotional bond with Sonia Gandhi. It is said that when Mamata formed the TMC in 1998, protesting against then AICC chief Sitaram Kesri, Sonia was extremely upset.

Old-timers recalled how during the period between the 1997 Christmas and New Year Eve, Sonia had stayed up at night to bring about a rapprochement between a haughty Kesri and a rebellious Mamata. On one occasion, an agitated Mamata was given an audience at 10, Janpath by Sonia, even though the latter had retired for the day.

Subsequently, the ties between Mamata and Sonia showed that both may be politicians but not calculating ones. This was evident in 1999, when Sonia publicly expressed her emotions during Mamata’s induction into the NDA regime headed by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In what was obviously a spur-of-the-moment gesture, Mamata strode straight towards Sonia, seated in the front row in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, after being sworn in. The two hugged each other tightly as a startled Vajpayee, LK Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Sharad Pawar and others looked on. And then Sonia did her own spontaneous bit. “Congratulations,” she said, “but will you come back?”

Both realised that the invitation was only a gesture, an impulse of the moment. But a moist-eyed Mamata gently turned away. Perhaps Sonia was not expecting her to respond.

In the NDA, Mamata repaid Sonia’s gesture by blocking a proposed legislation that was aimed at barring persons of foreign origin from holding high offices. The proposal was made in one of the first Cabinet meetings convened by Vajpayee after the 1999 General Election.

It is, therefore, surprising that Sonia did not take the lead in wooing Mamata and working out tripartite seat-sharing in Bengal that would have given a boost to the Opposition.

A master tactician, Modi made fewer mistakes. However, his move to bench and control regional satraps in Rajasthan and elsewhere has shown chinks in the BJP’s armour. Similarly, the politics of vendetta, arrests and intimidation resulted in some parties joining INDIA, even though they owed their genesis to anti-Congressism or had revolted against the parent organisation.

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