Lok Sabha election results: After resurgence, what next for the Congress?

The Congress has taken the pole position in the Indian Opposition. Now what?

Party leaders say they feel they have been successful in two missions: They managed to get the party moving in the 2024 elections and checked the march of the Bharatiya Janata Party. “We have come back as a party that is now being talked about,” says Rajiv Shukla, former member of Parliament and coordinator of the party’s campaign in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.

Compared with 52 seats in 2019, the party’s tally looks set to increase to 99 this time, with 77 seats won already and substantial leads on 22 at the time of going to press.

 

The Congress now sees itself fighting the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana with vigour and sincere dedication. It has noted its gains in the northeastern states like Manipur. It has also noted internally the success of its digital campaign, which has now begun to match the Bharatiya Janata Party’s — tweet for tweet — according to younger party leaders.

 

“Even if we have not succeeded in forming the government (at the Centre), we have fought a good fight and are very much in the reckoning politically,” says former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. But he adds it is time for the party to make its presence felt in Parliament. There is no downside, he says: The Congress will act as a sharp, focused and intelligent Opposition in Parliament. It expects floor management by the Opposition to make the space contentious with a government that will now be forced to be more accountable.

Internal discussions in the Congress in the aftermath of the results did see some debate on the issue of forming a government with the help of old friends Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu. But Congress President Mallikarunun Kharge told friends and colleagues that it was better to be cautious rather than attempting an unsustainable coalition.

Some challenges for the party, however, remain. The principal issue is the revamp of the organisation. This, many feel, will be the biggest impediment to its revival. “There has been very little revival of the Congress organisation,” says Dr Sudha Pai, one of India’s foremost Congress experts. “There are no signs of that. For a long-term revival, now they will have to work very hard to build an organisation and build a second line of leadership in every state. Only that will help build on what the party has got.”

The Congress is yet to hold internal party elections. A fully elected Congress Working Committee (CWC), which has no nominees, is yet to be put in place. “Rahul ji’s yatras are what caused the momentum,” says Chavan. But other leaders say the weakness of an organised presence in many states failed to utilise that momentum.

The party is facing challenges in the Karnataka government. This was clearly manifest in the defeat of D K Suresh, the brother of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar in the Lok Sabha election. Kharge, who comes from Karnataka, would like to be sent back there. Congressmen feel this move can facilitate the return of a new and invigorated Rahul Gandhi for the top job, and a bigger role for Priyanka Gandhi, especially after Rahul’s likely resignation from Rae Bareli.

“What we have got from this election are two things — a sense of confidence and belonging, and a new relevance,” says a Congress leader from Chandigarh. The party manifesto, drafted under the chairmanship of P Chidambaram with help from K Raju, Amitabh Dubey, Imran Pratapgarhi, and Gurdeep Singh Sappal, is seen to have given the party a new direction, despite initial criticism. It focused on Five Nyays and proposed concrete policies for each segment like the youth, women, farmers, etc. The fact that over 8.8 million people downloaded it shows how impactful the manifesto was.

The Congress will hold a meeting of the working committee, which will take stock of the victories like in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, as well as setbacks. But party leaders are clear. It is a party that is on the up.