Old, but no longer a grand Congress this time

New Delhi: The crushing defeat across the country has left the Congress leadership numbed with shock and disbelief on Thursday, with party president Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in Amethi — though voters of Kerala’s Wayanad rescued him in his second seat — adding humiliation to the debacle.

The Grand Old Party that ruled independent India for 55 years out of its 72 years of existence so far is now set for 10 consecutive years on the opposition benches — its longest such spell. It had spent six years in the opposition during Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA rule from 1998-2004.

The shockwaves of the huge BJP-NDA victories seem to have also sapped the party’s and the larger Opposition’s energy for raising any questions on EVMs for now.

The fact that Congress’ attempts to ride the projected incumbency burden of the Narendra Modi government ended up as miserably as its crushing defeat in 2014 has exposed the unproductiveness of the party’s revival exercises for full five years. The party is staring another humiliation of not qualifying for the post of Leader of Opposition, for which it requires at least 55 seats in the Lok Sabha. The party was winning only 52 seats as of press time.

CONG PLANKS COLLAPSE
Some Congress leaders attributed the party’s debacle to the failure of its multiple electoral projects vis a vis BJP counter. The projected ‘Rahul Gandhi, the challenger’ theme could not match the ‘Modi factor’ which combined three counter planks — ‘nationalism’, ‘strong leadership’ and ‘Hindutva’. Their combined chemistry not only tapped the peculiar yearnings of ‘new India’ but also defused the opposition’s arithmetic calculations on rainbow social reengineering.

Congress’ corruption charges against the government came unstuck against Modi’s “desh ka chowkidar” self-positioning. For all the energy Gandhi spent on the Rafale issue, some said, it couldn’t dent Modi since “no VP Singh-like Bofors-time rebel” came out of the Modi cabinet. Also, Congress could not credibly link any “kickbacks” to the PM. Congress’ success in tapping the agrarian crisis and joblessness among youth and economic slowdown somehow lost its momentum post its Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan-Chhattisgarh assembly election victories. NDA wooed back farmers with its ‘PM Kisan Nidhi programme, while Congress failed to connect its ‘Nyay’ scheme with the masses, observers said.

WHITHER RAHUL’S LEADERSHIP
Besides leading Congress to its second worst defeat, Gandhi’s own defeat against Smriti Irani in Amethi is the first personal electoral defeat of a Nehru-Gandhi family member since Indira Gandhi’s and Sanjay Gandhi’s defeats from Rae Bareli and Amethi in 1977. Given Congress could just win Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli in UP has also exposed the shallowness of Priyanka Gandhi’s boisterous blitzkrieg across the largest Indian state.

This debacle coincides with anointment of the largest-ever “Gandhi family contingent” on Congress leadership — Rahul as party chief, Sonia Gandhi as CPP chief and Priyanka as AICC general secretary. But then, “if not Rahul Gandhi, then who?” Barring Captain Amarinder Singh of Punjab and party leaders in Kerala, all other party leaders suffered in this rout. As of now, there are no public expressions of criticism of leadership from top leaders, though veteran Janardhan Dwivedi — whom Rahul Gandhi had removed from leadership — told ET, “I am not at all surprised by what has happened today.”

Rituals have already started: Rahul Gandhi “offered” his resignation from the top post; CWC will soon meet to “consider” it even as Congress camp has let it out that Sonia Gandhi has “rejected” it.

IMMEDIATE CHALLENGES
Post-debacle, the Congress leadership faces three immediate tasks: guard against possible BJP attempts to topple the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and even Rajasthan, as UPA could win just four (one in MP and three in Karnataka) out of 81 seats across these states; check potential desertions from the party; and, rejuvenate itself for upcoming state polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, and other challenges from a resurgent Modi government.