Why Congress lost the plot in Gujarat: Familiar question returns after bypoll blow

Two days before the bypoll results, the Congress wrapped up an ambitious exercise as part of this Abhiyaan for organisational rejuvenation to appoint 40 District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents in the state through teams headed by the All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s observers.

It was envisaged as a pilot project meant for replication across the country.

So when Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Shaktisinh Gohil announced his resignation following the party’s defeat in the two bypolls, saying he was “morally responsible”, it caused some confusion among the party’s rank and file.

The Congress had lost both the seats in the 2022 Assembly elections too.

There seemed to be disappointment in the party that just when the new DCC chiefs needed hand-holding by their state chief, he had thrown in the towel. “We never expected to win the bypolls. Those seats were never ours”, a party leader said.

The outcome of the by-elections, however, pointed to winds of change.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s candidate Gopal Italia won from Visavadar with a higher vote share than that of the party’s 2022 winner from the seat, Bhupat Bhayani.

While Kadi was always a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion, the Congress had won the Visavadar seat in the 2017 Assembly polls, only to see its then winner Harshad Ribadiya switching to the BJP later along with other party MLAs.

In the 2017 elections held in the backdrop of the Patidar quota agitation, the Congress had put up its best performance in decades, winning 77 of 182 seats.

In 2022, Ribadiya, contesting on the BJP’s ticket, lost to the AAP’s Bhayani — who later defected to the BJP too — in an election which saw the AAP making its entry into the Assembly with five seats and the Congress registering its worst performance by getting just 17 seats. Visavadar, a Patidar stronghold, has seemed to be rejecting turncoats.

While the results of the bypolls and those of the recent gram panchayat elections in some places — such as a Sabarkantha village where a CPI(M) member was elected sarpanch, and an Aravalli village where the son of a BJP minister lost — may reflect “anti-incumbency”, Congress leaders seemed to be in denial, alleging “BJP has a hand in Italia’s victory” and that Patidar votes were “polarised”.

Former Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Paresh Dhanani cites the example of how days before the polling the police seized liquor bottles from Visavadar on a “tip-off” from Italia. “Had I been in his place the police would have arrested me claiming it to be Paresh Dhanani’s consignment,” he says.

A Congress leader from Saurashtra, on the condition of anonymity asks, “if voters were indeed drawn to Italia or AAP, then why did they (AAP) do so badly in Kadi?”

A party MLA argues that while the AAP has “steered clear of issues like secularism and social justice” from the outset, “these are the main planks of the Congress… We are the only party seen as speaking for Muslims, Dalits and tribals, but we did not do enough in these two seats”.

The AAP’s Gopal Italia (right) won in the Visavadar bypoll, taking the AAP’s tally in the Assembly to five MLAs. (Facebook)

A former Congress MP questions why the party did not include any Muslim leader in the first DCC chiefs’ list. “We sent out a wrong message and had to then correct it by appointing one in the Bharuch DCC.”

Gohil’s move to step down has evoked varied reactions among the party leaders, ranging from sympathy to anger and despair. While a party section criticises him for “leaving a sinking ship”, another group wonders why he quit in the very beginning of the revival process.

On his part, Gohil says, “When I took charge as president, the party was in a worse position. At least we won one Lok Sabha seat in my time (Banaskantha)”. It is another matter that the party subsequently lost the Vav Assembly by-election in Banaskantha.

An ex-MLA says this is a “normal practice” in the Congress to take moral responsibility for defeat, noting that then GPCC chief Amit Chavda and CLP leader Dhanani had quit after the party’s decimation in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “The AICC leaders in charge of Gujarat had accepted their resignations but the high command asked Chavda and Dhanani to stay till replacements were announced, which came 18 months later.”

Gohil is however clear that he will not return even if the party persuades him to do it.

On why he resigned despite the two seats being not the party’s sitting ones, he points out that “It was the way we lost”.

The Congress’s vote share plunged by about 8% in Visavadar, while in Kadi, which was won by the BJP, its vote share fell by about 4%.

These developments have left many leaders restive. There are some old and young leaders who empathise with Gohil, even as they feel that the party was sending out a “wrong message” down the line.

“We have no direction… we are not able to judge (what is going on), and are waiting for answers from the high command”, says Jenny Thummar, ex-president of the GPCC’s Mahila Morcha.

A young leader says, “There is a flaw in the process of appointing the DCC presidents. Do you think they will follow Shaktisinh if he was not involved in the process of their selection? How will he run the party?”

Another leader, who was among the PCC observers for the pilot exercise, says, “I would say the process was fine, but 30 % of the DCC presidents fit the job, 30 % are completely ineligible and 30% appointments were because there was no alternative.”

The ex-MP says, “Gohil might not be confident that he can revive the party since he was not given a free hand. He might also be feeling helpless as all appointments are decided by the central leadership. Also, the existing groupism in the party would not have allowed him to function.”

Gohil however insists that the leadership had given him a “free hand”.

“I was given more freedom than any Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president in the past. It was on my request that the pilot for selecting DCC presidents was held. My suggestion to host the AICC convention in Gujarat after so many years was also accepted”, he says, adding he was also asked to go through the final lists of the new DCC chiefs. “Earlier it would be the few of us taking decisions, but this time we thought of asking the karyakartas, which is good.”

Rahul Gandhi’s repeated bids to compare Congressmen with “shaadi ka ghoda” (horses for weddings) and “race ka ghoda” (horses for races) have also rankled party leaders, including his several loyalists.

“I have been in the Congress for decades, but a remark like that made me feel discredited,” says a party veteran. “People join a political party as volunteers. They spend their own money sometimes… What motivation do people have to join or remain here? You send someone from Delhi and expect they will win elections for you…that will not happen,” he says, calling for empowering the local leadership.

Criticising the lack of aggression in the party’s approach, he says, “Bhaichare se sarkar nahin badalti, jail jana padta hai, khoon dena padta hai (Governments are not ousted through a soft approach, you have to go to jail, give your blood for it)”.

Some youth leaders, who successfully led agitations against the BJP government earlier, feel that “The way the party is today, we cannot even win 50 seats, forget forming the government”.

One of them says: “Show me one big name who joined the Congress. It has failed to inspire as a party.”

The Congress also remains hamstrung by lack of funds. A star campaigner for the Visavadar bypoll says, “We were given a budget of just Rs 20 lakh, which is peanuts”.

“You need at least Rs 300 crore to run and raise a party from the scratch. Where would we get that kind of money?” a young Congress leader rues.