The Constitution Club poll verdict has sparked a jubilant response from the Congress and its cronies. Interestingly, only candidates were in the fray, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjeev Balyan.
The Congress is trying to project the victory of Rudy as a major win by the grand old party and a defeat of BJP. The aim is to give a narrative as a face-off between Amit Shah and the opposition, where the latter “triumphed”.
The Congress has repeatedly failed to win the trust of voters at the national and state levels. And now the Congress and its narrative builders are trying to project a clubhouse contest as a national referendum. A desperate stretch, as Congress’ supporters try to create a fake turf war, within the BJP, on social media.
Rahul Gandhi and his cronies, who cannot lead his party to victory in even his home state, now finds solace in backroom arithmetic and club victories. Similar scenes are also witnessed each year when the Congress and Left-backed panels sweep the polls of Press Club of India and Indian Women’s Press Corps.
One should be clear that the Constitution Club contest was not between Amit Shah and the opposition. It was a routine election contested by two BJP MPs. The attempts by the Congress and its allies on spinning this as a setback for the BJP reveals far more about their psychological need for relevance and a desperate win, even if it is at a club level. In the end, even the Gandhi family is understood to have voted for a BJP candidate in Constitution Club Polls.
Ironically, the contest between the two BJP MPs also goes on to prove that the party’s internal democratic health is hale and hearty. Sources stated that there was no instruction from the BJP to its MPs to lean towards any of the two contestants in the poll fray.
This also shows that even senior leaders are not parachuted into posts by diktat. They need to fight for votes and all results are accepted.
The Congress leadership and cadre would do good for themselves if they learn from this. The party where Mallikarjun Kharge sits as a nominal president while Rahul Gandhi continues to act as the de facto supremo, answerable to no one, accountable for nothing shouldn’t try to just steal club level polls in the national capital.
This hollow, illusion built, celebration by Congress is symptomatic of a party completely adrift from the realities of Indian politics and its voters. While they scramble for symbolic wins in parliamentary clubs and Lutyens’ committee rooms, the BJP continues to win what actually matters, elections across states and a national mandate that has remained firm for over a decade.
Rahul’s political career has been marked by one consistent trend, failure after failure in the elections and no accountability. Kharge, meanwhile, presides over the party like a caretaker, offering moral victories, instead of trying to create a political strategy or grassroots connection for the party’s revival.
The BJP remains rooted in mass politics, which continues to be a tragedy for the Congress. It continues to deliver electoral victories based on governance, organizational strength and public trust.
Congress‘ attempts at projecting wins in club elections reveals the shallow depths to which the grand old party has sunk. Rahul Gandhi’s claim of “vote chori” by the BJP isn’t going to cut it for the grand old party anymore.
The Constitution Club election episode is a reminder of the difference between being in politics to govern and being in politics to perform for a niche audience, confined to the Lutyens’ zone of the national capital.
Voters aren’t interested in who runs a club in New Delhi. They care about who and how their nation is being run. Congress should rethink whether it needs to win votes of the masses or attempt to collect trophies of club polls in the national capital.
