Wake up, Congress

These are bad times for the Congress. After losing the municipal elections in Mumbai, the party has now lost in two states where it was running the government. In Punjab, the exit polls had showed a neck-and-neck race between the incumbent Congress government and the challenger, the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine.

 

But the final results have demolished whatever hopes the Congress may have nurtured of holding on to power. In Uttaranchal, a resurgent BJP had no trouble trouncing the weak government of N D Tiwari. Only in Manipur has the Congress managed to remain ahead, but it remains to be seen if it can form a government.

 

State elections are often fought on local issues, and anti-incumbency has certainly played a role. Though the Akali Dal’s Prakash Singh Badal was facing allegations of amassing illicit wealth, the voters overlooked it and brought him back to lead the state for the third time.

 

Amarinder Singh paid a price for alienating his own party colleagues and for his allegedly high-handed ways. His push for SEZs also did not endear him to land owners and farmers. In addition, the rise in prices was also beginning to hurt the citizen. Similarly, voters in other states had their own set of local grievances.

 

But this does not absolve the Congress party in Delhi from responsibility. Of late, the party has shown an inability to come to grips with local politics. Whether it is on the question of forging alliances or selecting the right candidates, the Congress leadership seems poorly advised.

 

Part of the reason is the centralised style of functioning of the Congress. In thrall of the Gandhi family, the party’s leadership has completely given up any pretence to inner party democracy, letting a small inner coterie take all the decisions. This can naturally lead to distortions, since local conditions rarely get taken into account; it was evident, for example, that Amarinder Singh was unpopular with his party colleagues.

 

With elections to key states like UP and Gujarat coming up, the Congress needs to get its act together. Examining its own inner workings might be a good place to start. At the moment, the opposition parties are in disarray, but that could change, given their improving performances in state and local elections. The results of Punjab and Uttaranchal are a wake-up call for India’s oldest party.