Why AICC session marked Gujarat for first special resolution ahead of 2027 polls

Though charged up, Congress leaders, including party veterans and youth leaders, raised concerns over whether the cadres would remain motivated until the elections.

Springing into action, the party leadership on Saturday appointed one AICC observer along with a team of four Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) observers for each of the 41 District Congress Committees (DCCs), who will meet in Aravalli district’s Modasa on Monday to oversee the process of appointing DCC presidents.

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to attend the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Strengthening the district-level units, as per the decisions taken at the AICC session, is central to the party’s revival plan.

Gujarat Congress working president Jignesh Mevani, who called for becoming an “impactful Opposition” at the AICC session, told The Indian Express, “The AICC and Rahul ji are certainly taking Gujarat very seriously. The meeting has given energy to the party cadres… the entire party unit is charged up.”

A senior state leader, however, has a note of caution. “Who is appointed to lead the DCC is most important. Also, our young workers will have to go to the people, and go back to them even if they were not receptive the first time.That is the only way the voter will take us seriously,” he said.

One young leader felt the Gujarat resolution could have been “shaped better”. “From Rahul ji declaring in Parliament that the Congress will form the government in Gujarat in 2027 to his call to ‘remove the traitors (in the party)’ last month, he should have connected better with the audience. What some leaders said in their speeches, about a plan of action, should have come from the boss,” he said.

The resolution, promising to walk the path of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, proposes a caste census in Gujarat if the Congress comes to power, besides promising constitutional rights for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), minorities and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Former state Opposition leader Paresh Dhanani, who moved the resolution, said, “The resolution is centred around three points: the Congress will return and bring prosperity; the party led the fight for freedom against the British and will again lead another fight for freedom (against the BJP); and this fight that had started from Gujarat is set to begin again from the land of Gandhi and Sardar Patel.”

“The challenges are different and there is no alternative to hard work. We have to be combative, have zidd (stubbornness) to get back to power,” said Dhanani, who won his first election in 2002, held in a highly polarised atmosphere against the backdrop of the riots.

Dhanani also said that comparing the Congress’s current demand for a caste census to the KHAM – or Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim – coalition that was credited for the party’s landslide victory in the 1985 Assembly polls was “false propaganda”.

“A caste census will give confidence to every caste that feels insecure… It is a tool to say that you are not alone. They (BJP) created an imaginary wall of fear to which people fell prey,” said Dhanani, claiming that the BJP had “divided even tribals into sub-groups” and driven “deep wedges” in these communities.

Congress Seva Dal national president Lalji Desai said caste has become a driving force in state politics. “In the last two decades, our hospitals, schools, businesses and even crematoriums, temples and orphanages have become caste-based. The entire power structure is dominated by caste. People have become caste leaders instead of mass leaders. Only if we do a census will we know which caste stands where. For instance, there could be a Patidar farmer or a small farmer whose economic condition could be bad. Earlier, at least there was security of a government job; today, everything is outsourced and contractual,” Desai said.

Since the BJP became the dominant force in Gujarat in the 1990s, the Congress recorded its best performance in the 2017 Assembly polls, when it won 77 of the state’s 182 seats to give the BJP a scare. With 99 seats, the BJP failed to clear the 100-seat mark for the first time since 1990.

That election’s results were largely credited to the Patidar agitation, led by Hardik Patel, demanding OBC status for the community. Traditionally a loyal constituency of the BJP, Patidars voted against the party and helped the Congress. In 2019, Hardik joined the Congress, but switched to the BJP ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections and is now an MLA. In 2022, the Congress won just 17 seats, and is now down to 12 after several MLAs quit mainly to join the BJP.

According to Desai, the AICC session brought the feeling that “the Congress was going back to its old ideology, addressing the inequalities in the power structures that had emerged over the last few years”. The party will be fighting against “capitalism, feudalism, casteism, religious fascism, patriarchy and gender inequalities”, Desai said.

While many in the Gujarat Congress are awaiting the “purge” that Rahul Gandhi had warned about when he spoke of “traitors in the party” during a visit in March, and a possible change of guard, some believe it is not necessary. “The Congress will have to assign tasks to each horse, and the mules. We need the race horse and the wedding horse and the mules, the classification has to be done,” said a former MLA and organisational leader, referring to Gandhi’s remarks earlier about the Congress mixing up its “race horses with its wedding horses” to make a point about the efficacy of the party’s leaders.

The task for Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief and Rajya Sabha MP Shaktisinh Gohil is a mammoth one, given the deep fractures within the party and its increasingly limited resources.

Concluding the AICC meet, Kharge, looking towards Gohil, said, “Shaktisinh, tumhari shakti dikhao, sabko saath lo aur aage badho (Shaktisinh, show your strength, take everyone along and move forward).”