© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
“Demoralised” Congress workers in Gujarat, lack of the central party leadership’s involvement in the state unit affairs, and some state party leaders being allegedly hand-in-glove with the BJP. These are some of the points that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) observers, appointed to oversee the appointment of the District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents across Gujarat, have made in their reports to the party high command.
As part of the AICC leadership’s pilot project, which is said to be the brainchild of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, a five-member panel comprising an AICC observer and four Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) observers were tasked to oversee the changes and ensure smooth functioning of the DCCs in all 41 districts of Gujarat – a state where the party has been out of power for 30 years.
The AICC observers submitted their reports after holding several rounds of meetings in the districts assigned to them.
In the 2022 Assembly polls, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also in the fray, the Congress managed to win only 17 of the 182 seats with 27.75% vote share, down from the 77 it won in 2017 with an over 40% vote share.
The local Congress units in Gujarat said they were “happy” over the central leadership’s “involvement in the state”, even as the AICC observers held one-on-one meetings in Delhi with top leaders, including Gandhi and AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal.
Sources told The Indian Express that the high command will take a final call on the appointments of the DCC chiefs while keeping caste and gender balance in mind as well as ensuring a mix of young and old leaders.
Here are some of the key issues that the AICC and PCC observers flagged during their meetings with the party top brass.
Several AICC observers that The Indian Express spoke to pointed to the alleged “nexus” between some local Gujarat party leaders and the BJP. “We need to do something about our leaders being too close to the BJP. I was shown photographs of Congress leaders with BJP-RSS leaders but I insisted that they are not reliable evidence. Then, the local leaders showed me other evidence as well,” an AICC observer said on condition of anonymity.
Another AICC observer said local leaders also produced evidence that Congress leaders were doing business with people from the BJP and RSS. “This was quite surprising to me,” the leader said.
Gandhi first raised the issue during a visit to Ahmedabad in March and had accused a section of Congress leaders of “conniving with the BJP”. “If needed, we can remove 20-30 people,” he had said.
Pointing out that the Congress central leadership has not “shown a lot of interest in the state”, an AICC observer said, “We have been out of power for so long. The central leadership has not guided workers as much as they could, leading to the workers getting demoralised and a few of them leaving the party. Several local leaders told me this.”
Claiming that an issue gets more media attention if the national leadership picks it up, another observer said that he had flagged it to the high command in his report.
Almost all the AICC observers pointed out that the Gujarat units have been beset with factionalism. “People are keen to work for the Congress due to its ideology and history. However, some leaders who lead factions make it difficult for the local units to work at the grassroots-level,” an observer said.
Another observer argued that factionalism was common in almost all political parties. “If the BJP carries out a similar exercise it will find factionalism too,” the leader said.
Several observers also highlighted the party candidates’ weak campaign in the last Assembly polls and claimed “not enough people were seen on the ground even during elections”. “In the district assigned to me, there were complaints that a couple of candidates did not show any enthusiasm in campaigning. However, the local unit pointed out that it was because of paucity of funds and guidance,” said an observer.
Alleging that the local police and administration “have made the life of Congress workers difficult”, many AICC observers told The Indian Express that they had flagged the issue in their reports.
“One must understand how the police and administration can impact the work of a party. People who are aligned with our ideology are scared to join us due to the threat of harassment by the police. Some leave the party due to this. The police have been working in a partisan manner and this has resulted in our cadre being weakened,” an observer said.
A party leader said he had discontinued the small meetings he held in his village under the Congress’s banner after the police and administration “harassed” him. “This has also impacted our leadership at the district and block levels,” he claimed.
Some AICC observers also pointed out that the party’s frontal organisations like the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and All India Mahila Congress have also been “missing in action” in the state.
“The frontal organisations’ role in agitations, protests, and sit-ins is important but they are barely visible on the ground. The party needs to reinvigorate these organisations to have more visibility and provide support to local units,” said an observer.
