The Congress has been in tatters since the 2014 defeat. The downfall of the party which started with the emergence of the 5th generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family has continued. In fact, the crisis keeps getting deeper for the party, which once enjoyed unchallenged superiority across India. Not only is the party quickly losing whatever public support it still enjoyed, but it is also constantly rocked by major differences and disagreements between its senior leaders. Such rifts have made the revival of the ailing party almost impossible. The problem is further aggravated by the fact that the Congress is unable to stitch any alliances due to its inherently arrogant nature, and the state leaderships and cadres are getting disillusioned with the confused central leadership.
In yet another headache for the Congress leadership, two of its political heavyweights seem to be involved in a bitter fight with each other. This time around, West Bengal Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Abhishek Manu Singhvi are sparring, since Singhvi is representing the Mamata led government before the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the BJP regarding the recent panchayat poll violence.
This has irked Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as well as the Congress cadres in West Bengal, who allege that TMC workers targeted Congress workers and prevented them from filing nominations across the state. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury voiced his anger this Saturday, and wondered why Singhvi is arguing for the TMC government before the apex court. He also stated that his workers are asking him as to why Singhvi is representing the Mamata led government before the highest court of the land, and he feels embarrassed as he does not have an answer. He also made it clear that he has voiced the opinion of the state cadres before the highest leadership of the party.
Interestingly, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also expressed pleasure over the Calcutta High Court ruling which instructed all SPs, DMs and SDOs to ensure peace during the polls. This suggests that while a senior leader of the Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi is going in one direction, the state president is taking a diametrically opposite stance. Meanwhile, the party has not taken an official stand on the issue, which suggests that the leadership as well as ranks of the party is divided and confused. There is no effective leadership in the Congress, and nothing is in order as far as the Congress is concerned.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had brought to the fore the bitter relationship between the Congress and the TMC in the past too, when he ruled out an anti-BJP alliance with the TMC. He had suggested that Mamata Banerjee was being overambitious, trying to project herself as a pan-India leader, which was unacceptable to the Congress. Now, two leaders within the Congress have taken different stands, suggesting that there is no unison within the Congress.
This is not for the first time in the recent past that the state leadership of the Congress has shown suspicion and distrust towards the national leadership. Last month, a senior Karnataka Congress leader had, according to news reports, shown reluctance towards hosting the party chief Rahul Gandhi and letting him campaign. This was because of the apprehension of losing votes due to the poor track record and campaigning skills of Rahul Gandhi. This goes on to show that all is not well within the Congress. There is no effective central leadership smoothly reconciling differences between the party leaders and guiding the state leaderships. The Congress is a pack of confused leaders and workers which is already in tatters on the verge of breaking up into several factions.
