For the past few weeks, the Congress party remains in the news for battles raging within the Grand Old Party. Ironically these are in several states, a few in which it is in the government and other places where it is either in the opposition or in a moribund state.

For the past two years, affairs in Congress remain in a state of flux. There is no clarity yet whether Rahul Gandhi is willing to re-occupy the post of the President amid an ever-growing perception that he along with sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are working in tandem, behind the scenes with interim party president Sonia Gandhi.

Punjab sits on top of this heap both in terms of priority and intensity as the countdown for assembly elections in the border state is already on. People of the state could be called by early next year to vote for a new government.

Protests by the Chief Minister and several senior leaders notwithstanding, the Congress central leadership handed over the reins of the state unit to Navjot Sidhu. His appointment removed doubts of where the former test cricketer-turned-politician drew his strength from — the High Command.

Sidhu is now proceeding on a plank of making good the promises made to the people ahead of the 2017 assembly elections including lowering power tariffs, tackling the menace of drugs, action on cases of sacrilege etc. Instead of preparing to take on the political opponents, the Punjab Congress is out to take on the Chief Minister.

Ever since his appointment as the Pradesh Congress Chief a few weeks ago, Navjot Sidhu actions and pronouncements have riled a seasoned politician and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. While Amarinder Singh lost political capital built over the years, the manner in which Sidhu and his supporters are progressing provides tremendous space for other parties in the opposition to regroup and gain ground.

This when there is a reasonable expectation the Congress can retain its government as the Shiromani Akali Dal was hobbling before a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a handicap in terms of the backlash of the protesting farmers and having to go it alone after the Akalis broke three-decades old tie-up.

In the neighbourhood, embers of the fire lit by dissidence led by Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot remains. While his political manoeuvre with a bunch of legislators could not dislodge the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a political settlement brokered by the central leadership representative Ajay Maken made little progress.

Despite several reminders from the leadership, Gehlot appears in no mood to accommodate legislators close to Pilot in the face of a perceived threat from ‘Independents’ who bailed his government from an attempted coup. Currently recovering from a surgical procedure, can Gehlot postpone the ‘adjustment’ as the government crossed the midway mark of five-year tenure. Since the truce pact, Sachin Pilot has held his horses and waits patiently for delivery on promises.

Adding to these is the turf battle in Chhattisgarh with T S Singh Deo throwing the gauntlet in challenging Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. The former carries a grouse of being denied the Chief Minister post in round one when the party secured a two-thirds majority ending the three-term tenure of Raman Singh of the BJP. Singh Deo feels it is time to honour a promise of a change of guard halfway since December 2018 for which there is no official confirmation. Both Chief Minister Baghel and Singh Deo have made rounds of Delhi with supporting legislators. The game of nerves continues.

While the above-mentioned states the Congress has a government, in states like Karnataka and Kerala, where it is in the opposition, the political tug-of-war between rival leaders is constant.

If it is former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah versus State Congress Chief D K Shivakumar in Karnataka, in Kerala after ignoring the seasoned duo of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala the central leadership propped up two lesser-known K Sudhakaran as the Pradesh Congress Chief and V D Satheesan as the leader of the legislature party. The factional fight is intense down to the district level now.

In states like Haryana, where the Congress hopes to wrest power from the BJP-Jananayak Janata Party coalition, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his supporters made it difficult for the Pradesh Congress Chief Selja to work. Hooda, a prominent Jat leader hopes to install his son as the state unit chief replacing the incumbent, a move that can create resentment among the Dalits.

In addition, Uttar Pradesh remains among the most infertile political grounds for Congress. The experiment of tying up with the Samajwadi Party flopped in 2017 and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi ploughs the furrow intermittently where the formidable BJP never pulls out from play.

In the absence of any clear political thought, ideological clarity and a solid programme to work for, the Congress is headed nowhere even as the G23 seniors wait for the next move.

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

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