Whether the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) wins the 2024 election or not, the fact remains that it has put up a spirited fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by raising pertinent issues like unemployment, price rise, the Agnipath scheme’s failure, corruption, electoral bonds, majoritarianism and the threat of constitutional amendments, among other things.
This marks a significant departure from the 2019 parliamentary election, in which the Congress struggled to come up with any concrete strategy to counter the ruling BJP, especially after the Pulwama terror attack on February 14 that year.
Perhaps it was more because of this reason that the then-Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, lost the plot and was forced by circumstances to raise the corruption charge in the purchase of Rafale fighter aircrafts from France. The “chowkidar chor hai” slogan boomeranged as the BJP fully exploited the situation emerging after the Balakot strikes on February 26, 2019.
Will help build organisation
As the issues raised by the INDIA bloc are dear to the common masses, they started drawing support from various sections of society. It helped the respective opposition parties, especially the Congress, to rebuild itself in the states where it had been wiped out in the post-Mandal, post-mandir years.
Despite lacking resources and facing witch-hunts, the energy and vitality shown by the opposition parties has countered the perception that only the BJP has a dedicated band of workers. In contrast, the saffron party’s rank and file are dispirited and lacking in enthusiasm this time.
Last year, the grand old party consolidated itself after winning the assembly elections in Karnataka and Telangana. In the latter, a new leader, Revanth Reddy, emerged. Though the party won the Himachal Pradesh election too, the sailing is not so smooth there, as it saw the defection of some of its MLAs.
However, other state-level leaders have grown more confident simply because the central leadership has risen to the occasion. The two nationwide yatras undertaken by Rahul Gandhi exploded the media-created myth of him being a reluctant politician. The ‘go to the masses, learn from the masses, then teach the masses’ policy of the Congress bigwigs has started yielding results.
The people’s verdict will be announced on June 4, yet the rank and file of the Congress and other INDIA partners are in an upbeat mood. This is a very significant gain of the 2024 election.
The party has, in the last few years, emerged virtually from scratch and has overcome the crisis posed by G-23 after the 2019 Lok Sabha election debacle. The resignation of former Congress leaders Captain Amarinder Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad seems to have had no impact on the party anymore. The party now appears to be clear of elements who ditched it at the first opportunity.
The Congress smoothly conducted an organisational election and Mallikarjun Kharge emerged as its president. He may be old, but his experience and his Dalit background are, in one way or another, working in the party’s favour.
Chink in the BJP’s armour
At the same time, the 2024 election has exposed the chink in the BJP’s armour. Never in the last ten years has the saffron party been as defensive as it is this time. Throughout its electioneering, the BJP danced to the agenda set by the opposition as it struggled to project one of its own.
What needs to be understood is that in the last decade, the Congress has, alone and in several other cases with alliance partners, defeated the BJP several times in state assembly elections.
Contrary to this, the Congress has won only twice against the non-BJP regional parties – in 2017 in Punjab and in Telangana in 2023.
The Congress had in 2018 snatched back Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan from the BJP. Earlier in the same year, it helped the Janata Dal (Secular) form the government after the Karnataka assembly election.
Re-emergence of the Congress
So, the truth is that it was always easier for the Congress to defeat the BJP over regional parties in state elections. Even in Kerala, it could not win the state back from the Left Democratic Front in 2021.
This election has seen the rise of Rahul Gandhi at the national level, which has come as a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The good thing about democracy is that the ruling party cannot completely wipe out its rivals. Even if any opposition party grows weak or disappears, others can rise to the challenge – the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and Punjab are examples of that.
The Left Front ruled West Bengal for 34 years, and it was thought that the opposition had vanished. But in 2011, its rule came to an end.
The re-emergence of the Congress may prove to be a game-changer. After 1967, the party gradually started losing its committed workers as well as voters. Those who used to vote for it had no commitment to it and would do so only because of the absence of any alternative.
Now, that appears to be changing. People are now heard in public places openly defending the achievements of the 139-year-old party. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and many of his economic policies are now being hailed.
Notwithstanding the non-stop attacks on former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the last ten years, many people have now started objectively reading about his life and achievements. Nehru may have made mistakes – but it is an established fact that whatever India is now is largely because of his contributions. Several articles highlighting him have come on the eve of his 60th death anniversary on May 27.
Thanks to the unnecessary targeting of the first prime minister of India and totally rejecting the contributions of the Congress party, Modi has compelled many academics, media persons, students and other public opinion-makers to come up in their favour. Innumerable YouTubers, bloggers, and writers have flooded social media to silence the propaganda of the Hindutva forces.
It would not have been the case had Modi and company not been so crude in their attacks. It is their zeal to make India Congress-mukt that has led to the revival of this party.
Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based freelance journalist.
