A politically diminished Congress turns 131

New Delhi: The Congress turned 131 on Monday—the kind of milestone political parties aspire to but rarely achieve. But for the party, some analysts pointed out, it was as much a moment of introspection as of celebration.

Not only did it turn in its worst performance ever in the 16th general election, winning only 44 seats, but it has seen its political footprint shrink dramatically across north India. Its lowest moment came in Delhi, a state it governed for three straight terms and where it failed to win a single seat in the polls swept by the Aam Aadmi Party in February.

The moment was officially acknowledged by Congress president Sonia Gandhi when she unfurled the party flag at 24, Akbar Road, the headquarters of the party in the national capital. The ceremony was attended by senior party leaders including former PM Manmohan Singh, treasurer Motilal Vora and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Political parties that are a century and older include the Democratic Party (1828) and Republican Party (1854) in the US, the Conservative Party (1834) and Labour Party (1900) in the UK, the African National Congress (1912) in South Africa and the Australian Labour Party (1901).

The Congress was founded on 28 December 1885, when it held its first session—attended by 72 delegates in Mumbai under W.C. Bonnerjee’s presidentship.

However, Monday’s moment of celebration was marred after Rahul’s tweet—“I will be travelling to Europe for a few days. A very Happy New Year to everyone”—served up a distraction online.

The Congress was further embarrassed when a party mouthpiece criticised and blamed former PM Jawaharlal Nehru for “the state of affairs in Kashmir, China and Tibet”.

More worrying for the party is that it is now in power only in 10 states—Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, five northeastern states and Bihar and Kerala, where it is part of the ruling coalition.

While the party did well in the crucial Bihar polls, winning 25 out of 40 seats, much of the credit is given not to its ground performance but to its political strategy of entering into a tie-up with the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

“The Congress is in its most difficult time right now. The bigger challenge for it is not that it is not in power in so many states—it is that it is not even in the opposition in so many states. When a party is the main opposition in a state, it still has hope that in the third or fourth term, it will form the government because of anti-incumbency but here the situation is very grim,” said Sanjay Kumar, political analyst and director of New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

The Congress is not the main opposition party in Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

“They have to begin their revival from the ground and not Parliament. They are just not there on the ground and that is the biggest problem. The leaders have lost touch with the ground. I don’t think that any serious deliberation over a road map on return to power has happened in the Congress ever since its defeat last year,” Kumar added.

The party itself has been preparing for a baton change with Rahul slated to take over from Sonia as party president. While there is no official word on the exact date of the transition, the party has drawn the charge of promoting dynastic politics. Between the Nehru-Gandhis, there have been three prime ministers—Nehru, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi.

“At the moment, the idea of dynastic politics in Congress seems to be the necessary evil. The party continues to have a centralized leadership with chieftains in different regions who refuse to accept a common leader,” said Pradip Kumar Datta, professor of political science at Delhi University. “The party is so huge that it needs to have some common ideology which is not present—instead the focus is on just one family.”