Congress: CWC Reshuffle - Struggling to Maintain ‘Balance’
Asia News Agency
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is struggling to maintain “balance,” in the party, as The Hindustan Times puts it. “That appears to be at the core of the significant reshuffle in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) over the weekend, months after party president Mallikarjun Kharge took charge. Mr Kharge decided to expand the party’s top body, with an eye not only on fulfilling some of the long-pending resolutions passed in Udaipur last year, but also on a clutch of crucial polls that will determine the contours of the Opposition arrangement in taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As a result, the main CWC now has 39 members, up from 25 in the previous avatar. It also has 32 permanent invitees and 13 special invitees. The first balancing act is between the old guard and the new faces. Mr Kharge inducted at least 20 new faces, aiming to fulfil the Udaipur resolve of mandating 50% members under 50. The new members included Gaurav Gogoi, Kanhaiya Kumar and Alka Lamba. But the main CWC has only three members below the age cut-off. Among the old guard, AK Antony, Digvijaya Singh and P Chidambaram were the prominent names retained.”
Bridging the gulf between the old guard and the young brigade has been an uphill task for successive Congress presidents. Kharge has tried to do a balancing act on this count, according to The Tribune. “Intra-party unity is obviously the top priority for the Congress, which has gained notoriety for scoring own goals in recent years…..”
Placating dissidents
So, the message from the CWC meeting is “let bygones be bygones…..” While reconstituting the Congress Working Committee, former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, who has repeatedly raised the banner of revolt against CM Ashok Gehlot, has been made a regular member of the CWC. The attempt to placate Pilot,, states The Tribune “is obviously aimed at dissuading him from harming the party’s electoral prospects in the desert state. Rajasthan is among the five states that go to the polls later this year, the others being Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram. The Congress, which had defeated the BJP in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the 2018 Assembly elections, is hoping for an encore. Its performance in these three Hindi-belt states will have a bearing on its ambition and ability to lead INDIA, the newly formed Opposition alliance, in the 2024 General Election.”
Consensus and collaboration become more challenging
The Times of India sees the message from the new CWC in a different manner - “that especially for bigger parties, politics inside is as demanding as politics outside. So, some people have to be retained, some newbies were picked in the hope their dissent is softened, some young ones are there to make some key older ones feel more comfortable, and even then, a close eye has to be kept on those whose ambitions often don’t travel in the same orbit as the party’s plans. So, Sachin Pilot gets a promotion that makes Ashok Gehlot, facing crucial Rajasthan polls, happy, and if disquiet within Chhattisgarh Congress was settled by making veteran TS Singh Deo deputy to CM Bhupesh Baghel, a place was found in CWC for a leader from Telangana, little known nationally but crucial for that state’s elections.”
The CWC-84, including 32 permanent and 13 special invitees, apart from the core team of 39 – expanded from 25 – “is a coalition of regional interests and community/caste representation. Congress runs the risk of this 39-strong 'steering committee' becoming too unwieldy to, well, ‘steer’. Keeping factions and critics close to the brass is sound politics, but it makes consensus and collaboration more challenging.”
BJP too has issues: Not that this is a Congress-specific problem. “BJP, despite spectacular national victories in 2014 and 2019, is not immune to ferocious politics within, and neither is it complacent. It released candidate lists in Chhattisgarh even before election dates were announced, to galvanise party workers….”
Managing coalitions and faultlines
Factions highlight that while smart politicians can win elections, The Times of India writes “leaderships must cede some space within the party to other leaders. CWC’s 50% mark of inclusion – OBCs, Dalits, tribal representatives, women, etc – defines electoral faultlines. It’s also a recognition that the high command culture is unsustainable. Elections in Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan – where BJP and Congress are in direct contest – are crucial not just because these are politically significant states. Outcomes here will determine, for Congress, how effectively it manages both the coalition within – CWC – and the one outside, INDIA. For BJP, it will be a test run for 2024 on how to manage intra-party disputes.”
Revival of the Congress machinery for battle of 2024
The new committee, according to Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr (political analyst) “reflects the diversity of Congress Party’s leadership, the old jostle with the new, P. Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh rub shoulders with Shashi Tharoor and Sachin Pilot. This is the traditional Congress way, accommodating all to the extent possible, loyalists with dissenters…….
“It shows that the Congress Party, despite its fixation with the Nehru-Gandhi family’s leadership, and this fixation is based on calculation more than on sentiment, has proved yet again that its inner workings are quite democratic. Each one of the CWC members has a grand view of things of his or her own. But the decisions will be made unanimously. The Kharge presidency is moving, however slowly…..” He “has managed to keep the flock together, as it were.”
Rahul Gandhi would leave Kharge enough space to function: It can also be said, writes Raio Jr. “that Rahul Gandhi would want to leave Mr Kharge enough space to function though his clique, and there is a Rahul Gandhi clique, and there is sure to emerge -- if it has not already happened -- a Kharge clique as well, that would want to steer things in a manner it would believe will strengthen Rahul Gandhi. These inner tussles are the stuff of Congress Party’s working. The Congress cannot function like a well-oiled electoral machine in the manner of the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led BJP. While the BJP’s election victories would be the handiwork of the party workers’ hard efforts, in the case of the Congress the victory is entirely due to the tilt in the mood of the voters.”
Congress means business: Importantly, “Mr Kharge and the reconstituted CWC is an indication that the party means business. Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka show that the party can work its way through the Assembly elections. The party has, in a manner of speaking, entered the phase of collective leadership, formal and informal, with Mr Kharge as president. He will function along with others. There is no such thing as the Kharge way of doing things…..”
But it will be wildly" speculative to say whether Mr Kharge can lead Congress back to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election? But he is doing something that needed to be done -- keep the party in shipshape for the main battle. The BJP-NDA leaders have sensed that the revival of the Congress machinery is a clear sign that they have to take the main Opposition party much more seriously.”
