Congress' next release: Unity tests for brass

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi-led Congress central leadership has delicate tasks staring at them ahead of the next round of assembly elections early next year. In Punjab and Uttarakhand, the test is to keep the party units together, even as the nature of new appointments to man the party in Uttar Pradesh has made political circles closely watch whether the All India Congress Committee (AICC) intends to play with ally Samajwadi Party against the ruling BJP or extend its recently accumulated reputation of being a coalition-disruptor.

PUNJAB CONUNDRUM

Amid ongoing infighting in Punjab Congress, many in the party apprehend a repeat of the spectacle witnessed ahead of the 2022 assembly polls that saw the Rahul-Priyanka siblings' fascination for the cricketer-turned-wannabe-leader Navjot Singh Sidhu. The backing of the Congress' first family allowed Sidhu to indulge in a camel-in-the-tent-act on poll eve that scripted the unravelling of the then ruling Congress.


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This time, the bickering is between two leaders propped up by the same mentors - PCC president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, whom Gandhis had foisted as PCC chief after Sidhu quit, and Charanjit Singh Channi, who the Gandhi siblings had backed as the chief minister by pitching the move as a "Dalit trump card" in the Jat Sikh-dominated politics before the ill-fated 2022 elections. Both appointments were done by overlooking a galaxy of worthy leaders and thus sowing seeds of rift. As winners of two previous 'lotteries', Warring and Channi now appear convinced they are destined to win the jackpot of CM post next year, just as Sidhu had believed in 2022, and thus both want to lead as PCC chief.

What has surprised Congress circles is the way AICC chose to publicise the internal rifts by holding half a dozen meetings in Delhi - just as the leadership had made a street spectacle of dragging the then CM Captain Amarinder Singh into the Delhi confabulations before his messy exit - with many senior Punjab party leaders that also marked some avoidable slanging matches.

Congress appointed the 'Ajay Maken committee' to diagnose and cure the problem, all the while encouraging a buzz of a change of guard in the PCC leadership only to stick to Warring and to ignite Channi's grouses. All this in a state where many think Congress has a fighting chance to win.

With the Channi camp now setting a timeline for the leadership and Warring not commanding support of even many influential Jat Sikh party leaders, many in Congress are wondering what will happen first - desertions from the party or finding a widely acceptable, non-factional PCC chief.

FIGHTING FRIEND OR FOE

As the alleged donation theft at the Ram temple has created a mess for the ruling BJP and headache for the Yogi Adityanath government, it is being closely watched whether the Opposition will credibly tap the issue by going beyond the sound-bytes and whether they can capitalise on the good show by the SP-led Opposition alliance in the Lok Sabha polls. However, AICC introduced a new dimension by appointing Rajendra Pal Gautam, an AAP leader-turned-Congressman and one of the social justice coaches of Rahul Gandhi in his post-janeaudhari make-over. Gautam and other Team Rahul members - Krishna Allavaru, Anil Jaihind and some freelance advisors - had played a major role in creating rifts in the RJD-Congress alliance in the previous Bihar polls to the merry of BJP-JDU. Murmurs have also started about the possibility of PCC chief Ajai Rai being replaced with a Muslim leader. Congress circles are familiar with the theory that the 'neo-Congress persons' camp, to which Pal belongs to, pitches with Gandhi, that SP is saturated by the "burdensome" Yadav social yoke and that Dalit (given BSP's meltdown) and Muslim votes are now up for Congress to grab. This, along with 'Rahul-led' pitch for (anti-Yadav) OBCs-EBCs, can help Congress make a comeback in UP, the theory goes. Gautam, who has to first demonstrate his acceptability among the state Congress functionaries, recently said Congress and SP will be "equal partners" with no junior and senior in the alliance.

"Well, the usual posturing for bargaining is fine, but if one is theoretically convinced that Congress' future lies in defeating not rivals but unreasonably quarrelling with the allies, it can be unproductive in practical politics, especially at this critical juncture," said a senior Congress leader.

While Rahul is expected to lead Congress' poll pitch in UP, party circles are wondering whether Gautam also has a brief to undo the hold of Sandeep Singh-Dheeraj Gurjar-Pradeep Narwal trio who act as Team Priyanka pointsmen in UP Congress.

UTTARAKHAND LABYRINTH

Theoretically, the bipolar politics of Uttarakhand presents a big hope for the sole challenger, Congress, to score against the glaring incumbency issues of BJP government and the perceived image issues of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Yet, state Congress' preparations are hampered by the lack of a mass leader and divisions among the senior party functionaries. While Ganesh Godiyal was brought back as PCC chief by projecting him as a soft and clean face despite his past electoral defeats, party insiders say Delhi's decision to sideline former CM Harish Rawat has only added to the fault-lines even as the PCC president is struggling to command cooperation of seniors such as Pritham Singh, Yashpal Arya and Harak Singh Rawat.

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In a Hindu-dominated state where BJP is looking for ways to firm up its Hindutva plank, Rahul's recent 'ideological preoccupation' with the cause of gym owner 'Mohammad Deepak' has many state Congress leaders sceptical. While the state Congress is working to tap the incumbency issues of the Dhami regime, they also have a task to recalibrate in case the Centre replaces the CM as a pre-poll gambit.

Though these states hold hope for Congress, many feel a lot depends on how Rahul, on his return from his summer vacation abroad, approaches the task at hand.