There are signs, however faint, that the popularity of PM Modi is fraying at the edges and people are not too happy with the govt indulging in political games, even as they are feeling the pinch in terms of inflation and lack of jobs. And this is the time for Opposition parties, especially the Congress, to get a foot in the door. Bharat Jodo Yatra is expected to be the grand strategy to achieve a breakthrough. Time will tell whether the march has been worthwhile.

Two major things are happening simultaneously in the Congress at a time when its friends and critics gave it up as being irredeemable. First, party’s former president Rahul Gandhi, who refused to take over as the chief despite the cringing pleas made by sycophants, has set out on a marathon padayatra based on the theme of ‘Bharat Jodo’ (unite India). Optimists believe that this move would revive the party, and party insiders and those who support the Nehru-Gandhi family believe that this would also show the challengers and the sceptics in the party as to who commands popular support in the country.

In many ways, the party’s presidential election has been almost reduced to a sideshow. The contest for the party’s top post is between seasoned Mallikarjun Kharge, who is seen as the Sonia-Rahul candidate — though ‘strenuous’ efforts were made to show that the family had not endorsed his name — and the party MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor.

This was preceded by the tragicomedy of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot leading a last-minute protest rally by the party’s MLAs in Jaipur, which showed the chinks in the Nehru-Gandhi armor and forced the family to adopt a tough stance towards the family loyalist. The attempt of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh to enter the fray failed once Kharge entered the fray. It is quite clear that the contest between Kharge and Tharoor, interestingly both from south India — one from Kerala and the other from Karnataka — is no epic battle like the one between Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi’s nominee Pattabhi Sitaramayya in 1938. This year’s Congress presidential contest is not even like the one that took place in 1996 between Sitaram Kesri, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot because at that time Sonia Gandhi had not entered politics. Jitendra Prasada challenging Sonia in the 2000 party presidential election was indeed a non-event. The contest between Kharge and Tharoor is not evenly balanced. Kharge, apart from the ‘tacit’ support from the Nehru-Gandhi family, is considered by many Congress people as one of them because he has been in the party for decades now. Tharoor, despite being a three-time MP, is viewed as an unreliable newcomer, if not a total outsider. The former international civil servant, with all his proven savvy, has no advantages with the Congress and its convoluted factionalism.

The fact that the Congress needs new ideas and a revamp is not a priority for the Rahul and Sonia camps; it is necessary to recognize that there are two camps, and the Congress deadlock since 2019 has been due to the tussle between the two groups. Tharoor does not belong to either of them. And it appears that the Rahul camp may tolerate Kharge better than they would Tharoor. The Nehru-Gandhi family should have favored Tharoor, but they are not sure of his loyalty quotient. Or, Sonia should have asked Sachin Pilot, the Gehlot rival in Rajasthan, to contest the presidential election. But it seems that they do not like the ‘ambitious’ Pilot, and his failed attempt to bring down the Gehlot government and his flirtation with the BJP have alienated him from the family. The palace intrigues of the Congress are indeed endless and they are not relevant when the question arises as to whether the Congress can revive itself sufficiently under Rahul to put up a credible fight against the Narendra Modi–Amit Shah BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There are signs, however faint, that the popularity of Prime Minister Modi is fraying at the edges, and people are not too happy with the government indulging in political games, even as the people are feeling the pinch in terms of inflation and lack of jobs. And this is the time, indeed, for the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, to get a foot in the door. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is expected to be the grand strategy to achieve the breakthrough. Time will tell whether it has been worthwhile.

A member of G-23, the dissident faction inside the Congress, has remarked that the Bharat Jodo Yatra will help rebrand Rahul; and strengthening of the Congress is incidental. But many would say that if Rahul is successful in rebranding his image, it would amount to rebranding the Congress.

But Congress members of all camps should pay heed to what Union Home Minister Amit Shah told BJP members over a month ago; he advised the Union Cabinet Ministers to give time to the party work and party members. He said PM Modi was indeed popular across the country, but Modi would not be able to win the election if the party organization was not strong. It is a lovely commentary on the ruthlessly realistic approach of the BJP towards Modi and to elections in general.

It seems that the strategy of the Nehru-Gandhi family as well as other leaders in the party camp is to strengthen the brand image of Rahul and of the family, so that it helps the party. But Rahul seems to be working on a Mahatma Gandhi-like mass contact program. It is an idealistic plank that will work on the realistic plane of day-to-day politics as well, but the party has to close its ranks and present a united front.

Rahul is apparently focusing on making the Congress the lone alternative to the BJP because he seems to realize that Opposition unity is just a chimera. But he cannot ignore the imperative of making the party strong and broaden the base of inner-party consultation. A G-23 member’s complaint is that before 2019, Rahul did not like to have anything to do with the people above the age of 50, and now he has conceded to talk to people between the age group of 50 and 60. So, 80-year-old Kharge and 66-year-old Tharoor do not fall in this category.

(The author is a Senior Journalist)