Congressmen across the country may celebrate Kharge’s victory, but Kharge himself would not have that luxury as he has to race against time to reverse the electoral fortunes of the 137-year-old party, writes Deepak Kr Jha
Veteran Kharge scored a one-sided victory over Shashi Tharoor to emerge as the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years. A staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, the 80-year-old leader trounced Tharoor by bagging nearly 84 per cent of votes in the party presidential election.
Congressmen across the country may celebrate Kharge’s victory, but Kharge himself would not have that luxury as he has to race against time to reverse the electoral fortunes of the 137-year-old party. Kharge will now have to intensify the party’s moribund campaign in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. In both States, the Congress campaign has not picked up in the absence of senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi.
Against the backdrop of a loyalty pledge by senior leaders to the “high command,” it remains to be seen if the "puppet" tag that many critics have labelled on Kharg,e sticks or not. It will depend on whether he takes decisions independently or "rushes to 10 Janpath for advice on every issue. .
But the most immediate concern for Kharge will be to resolve the treacherous challenge in Rajasthan where the bitter feud between Chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot could mar the Congress’ prospect of returning to power in the 2023 assembly election.
Kahrge’s elevation to the party's top post comes when the Congress is in power in just two states on its own – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Kharge's election also comes at a time when, despaired about its future, hundreds of small and big leaders have left the party. Around 177 MPs/MLAs quit the party during elections, while 222 other leaders left the Congress for other parties in the last eight years
Kharge has to coordinate with Team Rahul Gandhi, which occupies key posts and positions in the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the Congress Working Committee (CWC), and in most states and influential leaders of the party.
The next challenge is constituting the party’s apex body, the CWC. It will be interesting to see how Kharge accommodates the so-called G-23 members supported him.
Kharge had to firm up a larger alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha with Mamata Banerjee, DMK's MK Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish and others like BJD, TRS, and YSR Congress. Kharge’s role will be significant in stitching any alliance once again with former PM H D Deve Gowda-led JDS with whom the Congress was in an alliance government in the current assembly.
Kharge's public life began as a union leader in his home district of Gulbarga, now Kalaburagi, and he joined the Congress party in 1969 and became the President of the Gulbarga City Congress Committee.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he bucked the Narendra Modi wave that swept Karnataka, particularly the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, and won from Gulbarga with a margin of over 74,000 votes.
A nine-time MLA, Gurmitkal assembly constituency was his home turf before he set his sights in 2009 on national politics. He has been a two-time MP from Gulbarga parliamentary segment. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the veteran leader was defeated by BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes. He has served as Union Cabinet Minister for Labour and Employment, Railways, Social Justice and Empowerment in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
“No one is big or small, all have to work together as 'karyakartas' to strengthen Congress...We have to fight together against fascist forces who are attacking democracy and Constitution. All Congress workers feel that the country cannot be sacrificed for a dictator. We have to together these destructive forces", Kharge said.
This was the sixth time that the Congress had an internal election for its president in its 137-year-history. Earlier it had in 1939, 1950, 1977, 1997, and 2000. Congress has claimed that its internal democracy has no parallel in any other party and it is the only one to have a central election authority for organizational polls.
It was way back in 1939 when an electoral contest decided who would be Congress president and in fact, Mahatma Gandhi's candidate P Sitaramayya had lost to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Then in 1950 came the Congress' first election post-Independence for the post of party president when Purshotttam Das Tandon and Acharya Kripalani faced off for the top post. Tandon, seen as a Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel loyalist, had won the contest trumping the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru's choice.
In 1977, following the resignation of Dev Kant Barooah as party president in the wake of the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, K Brahmananda Reddy defeated Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Karan Singh in the party's polls for AICC chief.
The next election that needed a contest came 20 years later in 1997 when Sitaram Kesri squared off in a triangular contest with Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot. Except for Maharashtra and parts of Uttar Pradesh, all state Congress units had backed Kesri. He had posted a landslide victory getting 6,224 delegates' votes against Pawar's 882 and Pilot's 354.
The third contest came in 2000 and this was the only time a Gandhi family member was challenged in the elections with Jitendra Prasada taking on Sonia Gandhi. Prasada suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Sonia Gandhi who garnered over 7,400 votes, while Prasada reportedly polled a paltry 94.
The last poll that placed Kharge in the driver’s seat was a historic one as Kharge replaced Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving party president. In the post-Independence era, a person from the Gandhi family has been at the helm of the party for about 40 years in total.
(The Writer is a Special Correspondent, The Pioneer)