With no traction for the party at the grassroots no surprise that congress bigshots are sticking to their comfort zones

With no traction for the party at the grassroots no surprise that congress bigshots are sticking to their comfort zones

After belatedly resolving the Punjab crisis, the Congress high command faces its next challenge with Chhattisgarh health minister TS Singhdeo and former Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot visiting Delhi to press their case against Bhupesh Baghel and Ashok Gehlot. Singhdeo wants Baghel and the high command to honour a commitment to rotate the CM post to him at the halfway mark. Pilot, after a failed rebellion, is struggling to get his followers accommodated in the Rajasthan cabinet.

The manner in which the high command decisively acted against Amarinder Singh has brightened their hopes. But there is a major difference. Both Baghel and Gehlot enjoy brute majorities in the respective Congress Legislative Party unlike Amarinder. A weak high command has no clout to unseat the duo even while it desires that the two CMs with proven organisational prowess come to the AICC to help rebuild the party in states going to the polls like UP and Gujarat.

The lack of enthusiasm for organisational work among Congress’s top leaders has been a big problem for the party. Former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat has been grudgingly continuing in Punjab ruing time spent away from his poll-bound state. Former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy showed no stomach for reviving the party in Andhra Pradesh after initial enthusiasm. In its glory days, Congress had the Kamaraj Plan were top central ministers resigned to take up party work. Such is the internal talent deficit and low morale that the party is in talks to rope in poll strategist Prashant Kishor and other young leaders who made a mark elsewhere.

Congress’s challenge is to discover the next generation of political savants like Baghels and Gehlots who could be waiting in the wings. It could try and blood its state Youth Congress units in states it is down and out to aim for a revival. Ultimately, the party needs a national narrative for the leaders to go to the masses with. This may explain the hesitation to take up new grassroots challenges even among seasoned leaders who came up the hard way in politics.