This weekend, starting from today, the Indian National Congress --its leadership and select invitees-- will go into a huddle at the 85th Plenary session to confabulate and arrive at a decision of where the Grand Old Party goes from here.

With over 15,000 delegates and nearly 1,400 of them eligible to vote for a new Working Committee, the outcome in the form of resolutions adopted at the February 24-26 Raipur session should serve as the benchmark for the party in gearing up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The upcoming plenary comes in the backdrop of a significant development in the party. For the first time in two decades, the Congress leadership is in the hands of a person who does not come from the Gandhi family. Yet, the octogenarian Mallikarjun Kharge and the entire party is acutely aware that he occupies the post on the benign watch of the family.

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Kharge and the Congress party will have to come out with documents to address a set of challenges the organisation faces on political, ideological and organisational fronts. Can it come out with plans to re-energise and re-capture the spirit while retaining its essence in a changed political landscape?

Political terrain

Kharge took charge of the party founded in 1885, at a time the political landscape looks vastly different than what existed five years ago. That was the time the party leadership was transferred from Sonia Gandhi to her son Rahul Gandhi. The terrain was tough then with the Bharatiya Janata Party star on the ascendancy and the Congress smarting under the double-blow in the form of successive defeats in the general elections. It is tougher now.

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Since then, the BJP, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his trusted aides Home Minister Amit Shah and party president Jagat Prakash Nadda, is going strong, winning elections in state after state. Barring significant setbacks in assembly elections of West Bengal (March-April 2021) or the recent one in Himachal Pradesh (November 2022), the BJP is cruising along.

Backed by a stupendous election machine, the BJP started preparations for the general elections, due in 15 months. The outfit identified 160 Lok Sabha seats where it stands a chance to knock off the winner and/or reinforce its position through extensive outreach. The party directed its senior leaders/Ministers to spend time in these constituencies.

Congress party would require to keep in step with the scorching pace set by the BJP whose target is twin-pronged – PM Modi winning a third-straight Lok Sabha polls to draw par with Jawaharlal Nehru’s record and get close, if not surpass, Rajiv Gandhi’s unparalleled 400-plus seats accomplishment in 1984.

The BJP has the resources in terms of a dedicated cadre and a rich war chest, which the Congress woefully falls short by miles. On top of it, the BJP command flows from the authority of PM Modi and the entire party stands behind him, soldiering on with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh working silently. Contrast this with the Congress, where besides regional leaders clashing every so frequently, the party was struck by severe internal dissent that manifested in the form of the G-23.

At Raipur, the Congress will hear views on what should be the strategy in building a coalition of parties to take on the BJP while retaining its right to lead the formation. On this count, there is serious reservation from the likes of Trinamool Congress while the new experiment of Bharat Rashtra Samiti, is being crafted as another contender for the alternate space.

Needs ideological clarity

The Congress needs clarity on its ideological setting. Perceived to be tilting towards the minorities (read Muslims), the surmise forms part of the A.K. Antony Committee report that went into the 2014 debacle. By the time 2019 Lok Sabha polls came the party leadership attempted course correction with Rahul Gandhi conducting temple runs.

Today, the BJP is firmly entrenched in public imagination as a party that works to project and stands for the majority community while pushing it to explore new limits in an assertive manner.

From its pro-minority stances to middle-of-the road approach, the Congress will have to determine where it stands on the issue. How can the party chart a course that is distinct from the path the BJP is on and work to attract a part of the majority community that drifted away? Can it strike a balance from its commitment to secularism and a softer adaption of the majority community beliefs?

Organisational structure

The first task before the party is to provide the new president a Working Committee, which makes policies and prepares a roadmap for the party, its workers and governments to work on. It is yet to decide on holding elections as per its Constitution to 12 of 23 members of the Committee or opt for the tradition of the last 25 years in authorising the party president to nominate the entire body.

The G23 ginger group advocated elections to the Working Committee and Parliamentary Board, which has not been activated for long. The Congress leadership is wary of holding polls to the CWC lest those elected challenge the ways of the party and of those at the helm. The 1998 shadow lurks in the backdrop as the Committee, constituted after elections ousted then president Sitaram Kesri, barely a year after he was confirmed to bring in Sonia Gandhi.

Besides changes in its composition are on the anvil. Expanding the current strength by four to include former Prime Ministers and former presidents in the panel should clear the passage for both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as also former PM Manmohan Singh. Plans are afoot to reserve half the Committee to accommodate scheduled castes/tribes, other backward classes, women and youth below 50 years, in line with the thinking at May 2022 Udaipur Chintan Shivir.

Setting the party structure in order, from the top to the block level is a huge task. It requires getting the intra-party equations right, amicably settle internal feuds and leadership clashes and then test the formulae in the run-up to 2024 in the assembly elections to seven more states this year including Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan where the Congress has a government. A bumpy road lies ahead.

—The author,KV Prasad, is a senior journalist and has earlier worked with The Hindu and The Tribune. Views expressed are personal.

Read his previous articles here

(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)