THE LONG WAY HOME
The Bharat Jodo Yatra has given new purpose to a moribund Congress, but people still do not see it as an electoral alternative to the BJP nationally. Even a national opposition alliance now seems a little remote
Six months is a long a time in politics. When the previous India Today Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll was conducted in August 2022, the Congress was in disarray. It was reeling under electoral losses in five states—Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The leadership crisis was not yet resolved. Sonia Gandhi was the interim president of the party but son Rahul Gandhi, despite resigning as president owning responsibility for the 2019 Lok Sabha election defeat, remained de facto chief of the party. The Udaipur ‘chintan shivir’, held in May 2022 to introspect the party’s abysmal performances, had decided to hold an election to find a new Congress president. But speculation was rife that Rahul or his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would present their candidature and make the presidential election a no contest. Word was out that the party would organise a massive padayatra (walkathon) across the country, but there was no clarity on its structure or course. In short, there was little hope of any change in the way the Congress has been functioning in India’s political landscape.
Six months later, the Congress now has an elected president in Mallikarjun Kharge who defeated Shashi Tharoor in a legitimate organisational poll. The debate continues on whether
Kharge will be his own man or remotecontrolled by the Gandhi family, but his election has, for the moment, silenced critics who alleged that the Congress could not look beyond the Gandhis. The latter had failed to deliver since 2014, when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party stormed to power at the Centre. The current edition of the Mood of the Nation poll suggests that the Gandhi family’s decision to stay away from the leadership position has the public’s endorsement. Only 11.7 per cent respondents say that a Gandhi family member should have continued as party president when asked if Kharge was the right person to lead the Congress. In fact, 52.5 per cent say the Congress will be better off without the Gandhi family. This is the highest negative vote the first family of the Congress has got since January 2021.
However, there has been another development that is more critical for the Congress than the change at the