Leadership crisis hurts Congress poll preparations

Assembly elections to be conducted in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year

Rahul Gandhi

The Congress leadership ‘crisis’ will complete a month next Tuesday, but there is still no clarity on how long it will take for the party to resolve it.

The uncertainty seems to be hurting the party in States such as Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand where Assembly elections are scheduled later this year. Going by the previous schedule, the elections in Haryana and Maharashtra are expected by October and in Jharkhand, by late November-December.

However, the Congress is yet to undertake any organisational restructuring in these poll-bound States as there is no clarity on who should initiate such a restructuring exercise.

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“There is no speculation, he [Rahul Gandhi] is our president and we unanimously support him. There is no question of any other name,” senior leader A.K. Antony had told The Hindu last Thursday after Mr. Gandhi told presspersons that the party would decide who will succeed him.

On May 25, during a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC),

Mr. Gandhi announced his decision to step down as the party president and is learnt to have given a month’s time to the party to look for his replacement. However, a group led by Mr. Antony is trying to convince Mr. Gandhi to stay on. The uncertainty, however, could affect the fight in the three crucial States that will have Assembly polls in three to five months.

Factional meetings

In Haryana, where the party lost all the 10 Lok Sabha seats, different factions convened different meetings to prepare for the Assembly polls.

While former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda called a meeting of his supporters in Delhi on June 9, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ashok Tanwar met his supporters in Gurgaon on June 12.

“Both the leaders have asked their supporters to get ready for elections but finally who gets party tickets, who will lead the party into the elections are all issues where the call has to be taken by the Congress president,” said a senior AICC leader.In Jharkhand, party workers turned rebellious during a performance review meeting in Ranchi and wanted the Jharkhand Chief Ajoy Kumar ousted.

But the party leadership is yet to take a decision in the absence of an active Congress president.

In Maharashtra, the party has not only seen the defection of the former Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, to the BJP but there could be more resignations in the offing.

“Mr. Pawar [Sharad Pawar] and the NCP [Nationalist Congress Party] seems to be playing a bigger role as an Opposition as nobody is sure what next to do until the leadership issue is resolved,” a senior Maharashtra Congress leader said.