Sir,
Will the Congress Party perish as West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others believe? Even in the past, many had predicted the end of Congress, but it had survived many onslaughts. The latest was in 1998 when Sonia Gandhi emerged Sphinx-like to revive it and rule from 2004- 2014. The 2014 Lok Sabha results gave the Congress 12 crore votes, though seat-wise, it got only 52. Even in its second successive defeat in 2019, the party retained a solid block of 20 percent votes. The Gandhi family is complacent, believing that the voters will get disenchanted with Narendra Modi sooner than later and return to the Grand Old Party. No doubt they live in a fool’s paradise as there is an urgent need to revive the party. Undoubtedly, the Congress Party faces a leadership crisis and challenges from many sides.
Rahul has been in politics since 2004, but he is not yet accepted as the opposition face. Rahul’s efforts to befriend second-generation leaders like Akhilesh Yadav have not succeeded. He needs an image makeover.
To revive it, a slew of steps need to be taken which include is to give a call to all those leaders who had left Congress to come back. This idea has been springing up on and off. Congress has been the parent of many ruling parties like the NCP, TMC, YSRCP. There have been suggestions that such a united party could function under a presidium and collective leadership. But the parent party is hesitant to take such a plunge. A united Congress is more formidable to the BJP than a divided opposition, that is the only advantage of BJP.
Kalyani Shankar
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