Kharge the unifier readies Congress for the long haul, but toughest stretch of the journey awaits

The decision to choose this low-key, though vastly experienced, figure as the helmsman of the Congress came at a time when all seemed lost for the party. And, ironically, he was the party’s third choice. Ashok Gehlot was its first choice but he preferred to continue in Jaipur as the chief minister of Rajasthan instead of allowing Sachin Pilot to take over, which might have been a win-win situation for both. The second choice was Kamal Nath and he too preferred to remain in Madhya Pradesh to make a bid for CM-ship again in the winter of 2023.

The Gandhi family then turned to Kharge, with many clamouring for a non-Nehru, non-Gandhi to lead the party when there has been a growing aversion to the politics of entitlement that Rahul Gandhi had come to symbolise more than anyone.

Kharge’s unity push has already yielded results in Karnataka, Chhatisgarh, and Rajasthan and he is already working with the Congress unit in Maharashtra. His efforts to keep Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar on the same page in the run-up to the Karnataka elections  — neither of them attacked each other despite being contenders for the top job  — changed the mood of demoralised Congress workers and was a key reason for the party’s victory.

Kharge saw value in elevating Siddarmaiah as CM though Shivakumar was considered to be close to him. Aware of the winning OBC-SC-ST-Muslim combination in the state — he was, after all, mentored by the late Devraj Urs, Karnataka’s CM in the 1970s who first fashioned this axis for Indira Gandhi — the Congress chief knew that SCs and STs gel well with smaller OBC groups such as Kurubas, a community to which Siddaramaiah belongs but are wary of the more domineering of the OBC groups.

Next came Chhatisgarh. After months of a tug of war, Bhupesh Baghel and T S Singh Deo, who like Sachin Pilot had been promised rotational chief ministership by Rahul Gandhi, suddenly stood side by side after Singh Deo was made the deputy CM. Baghel and Baba, as Singh Deo is known, were at one time called the Viru and Jai of Chhatisgarh (two characters in the iconic Hindi film Sholay). But Baghel tightened his hold on the party by playing the Chhattisgarhi “asmita (identity)” card and managed to sideline Baba. Of late, Singh Deo would have realised that politics was rapidly devolving to the lower castes. He is from an erstwhile royal family, the richest MLA, and a Thakur at that while Baghel is an OBC leader. Incidentally, Siddaramaiah is a Kuruba leader (OBC), Gehlot is a Mali (OBC), and Pilot a Gujjar (OBCs in some states and STs in others).

Baghel knew that Baba would be able to damage the party in around 15 seats in the Sarguja area and that a truce was not going to take away his chair. As Baba hailed Baghel as the “captain”, Baghel congratulated Baba with “Ab mil kar larhenge”, giving Kharge another victory to celebrate. The Congress president moved when the power balance was changing in the state and he gave Singh Deo a fig leaf with dignity.

So was the case in Rajasthan. Kharge was able to convince Pilot that the past could not be undone and that since the future belonged to him his best bet was to soldier on in the Congress. “Kharge told me,” Pilot said, “and it was as much advice as direction coming from the Congress president — to forgive, forget and move forward.”

Seeing the visage of Sachin Pilot on the TV screen earlier this week, expressing his resolve to let bygones be bygones made many sit up. Few believed this could be possible, given the bitterness that existed between him and Gehlot. In the past, CM called his former deputy a “nikamma (useless)” and “gaddar (traitor)”. There was no chance of the Congress coming back to power, people in Rajasthan would often remark, riven as the party was by the open Gehlot-Pilot slugfest.

After the unexpected truce in Rajasthan, Kharge has turned his attention to Maharashtra and called 27 senior state leaders to Delhi this week, the idea being to unify a downcast party. When the recent split took place in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a figure close to Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde quipped gleefully, “You take it from me, the Congress in Maharashtra will split next.” There is likely to be a new Congress chief in the state, in a new power-sharing formula being worked on, to get the party ready for the Lok Sabha elections.

In the past Kharge would react to being described as a Dalit by saying he wanted to be recognised based on his merit. His Dalit background led to the intermediate castes in Karnataka ganging up against the idea of having a Dalit CM. Today, as the third Dalit president of the Indian National Congress — after D Sanjivayya and Babu Jagjivan Ram — he is not shy of using his Dalitality as a political tool. In a meeting of around 30 leaders on Rajasthan, he virtually pulled up Gehlot for not doing enough about the excesses committed against Dalits in the state. By so doing, he also showed his even-handed approach towards Pilot and it had the desired effect.

Kharge has taken over as Congress chief when Mayawati’s influence is on the wane and, except for localised groups, Dalits are a leaderless community up for grabs. And the BJP knows this too well.

Kharge is clearly mindful of the hold the Gandhi family exercises on party affairs and he has got Rahul Gandhi to come to most of the meetings where critical decisions were taken. Rahul, too, is seen to be taking a backseat, allowing Kharge to play the lead role,  a change perceptible after his Bharat Jodo Yatra. “Kharge can keep the Gandhis happy and yet make his mark at the same time,” said a senior party leader. A former Congress MP said, “He will want to build the Congress party not just the family.”

Kharge is already beginning to exude a quiet authority and, in the process, he is stabilising the Congress. His appointment has also made it easier for the Congress to deal with other Opposition parties, given his age, experience, easy access (he sits in the All India Congress Committee office, meeting scores of party people every day) and the community he belongs to that makes the “social justice forces” such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) to accept him more readily.

But even as he knuckles down to closing the cracks in the party organisation, the challenges remain huge for the Congress chief. Organisational streamlining is only the first step in what is going to be a long haul for the party. He will have to put in place an election machinery that is non-existent in some states even as many disenchanted with the BJP once again look at the Congress with renewed interest.

(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 10 Lok Sabha elections)