Slow and unsteady

The belated appointment of a PCC chief in Bihar frames a Congress syndrome

The belated appointment of a PCC chief in Bihar frames a Congress syndrome

More than two years ago,the Congress pulled out all the stops in its campaign for the Bihar elections,testing the viability of the go-it-alone approach in the Hindi heartland that had proved to be rewarding in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. It did not end well,with its strength in the Bihar legislative assembly dwindling from nine to four. The Pradesh Congress Committee chief,Mehboob Ali Qaiser,resigned. And there matters stood till the appointment this weekend of his successor,Ashok Kumar Choudhary. Choudhary has his job cut out,with general elections now just about a year away. But the reminder of the headlessness all this while of its PCC in a state that is integral to its dream of regaining its traditional strongholds frames a persistent organisational problem.

In the articulation of the challenge of organisational renewal that faces their party,Congress leaders square up to the agility of regional parties that has rendered a national electoral battle the sum of state contests. The Congress has,however,been less than prompt in adopting mechanisms,or indeed the mindset,to strengthen state-level leaderships through accountability and transparency. Bihar is a perfect example of what besets the party. Once the partys strength had gone down to just four in 2010,one would have thought that things could only get better. Having hit rock bottom,whatever reshuffle it effected could only yield dividends. Instead,it struggled and,possibly,later forgot to find a replacement for Qaiser on account of in-fighting. When a party has more factions than the number of MLAs it sends to the assembly,it destroys its chances of building an organic relationship with voters as a constructive opposition.

By presiding over the decay of its grassroots organisation,a national party allows distortions to creep up all the way to its high command,with Delhi-based backroom politics replacing state-level decision-making,right down to the framing of candidate lists for elections. This is why the Congress will find it an uphill task to persuade anyone that the Bihar appointment is not just a clearing up of the backlog and may be the beginning of a larger turnaround in the party.