What makes Gandhis-CWC a team amid Congress ruins

The Gandhis flaunted at Saturday’s CWC assembly the ‘overwhelming’ and ‘passionate’ help they might command, simply as they’d rallied an ‘overwhelming assault’ on change seekers on the final yr’s CWC meet after 23 of them (with only a handful of them within the CWC) wrote to Sonia Gandhi. How do the Gandhis make this ‘loyalty present’ work, even when the household’s and the social gathering’s political fortunes have reached a nadir? The reply lies in an intricate, cleverly crafted, Congress management construction that works by bartering patronage for loyalty – a mutually benefiting association.

The Congress folklore at all times insists the Gandhi household’s management of the social gathering is a ‘strategic requirement’ for 3 causes: that the Gandhis ‘alone’ are the social gathering’s ‘mass leaders’, ‘ship’ victories and governments (and thus workplaces to the Congress functionaries) and ‘preserve the social gathering united’.

Nevertheless, every of those arguments have misplaced floor within the new realities of Indian politics. With the Gandhis main the cost, Congress tumbled to 44 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 52 in 2019 – the bottom tallies for Congress. Worse, the mixed ‘mass enchantment’ of the three Gandhis within the final two LS polls was far beneath what two “uncharismatic leaders” PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri-led Congress had raked in – 140 and 141 seats, respectively – when the Congress misplaced the 1996 and 1998 polls.

The truth that the Congress immediately heads simply three state governments reveals the bounds of the Gandhi household in repulsing the BJP even within the meeting polls. Endless desertions – most of them sworn ‘Gandhi loyalists’ – have resulted within the collapse of some Congress state regimes. Therefore, Gandhis are not any extra the unifying issue within the social gathering.

But, the household ‘guidelines’ the CWC – AICC, PCCs, DCCs and social gathering delegates – by leveraging the ‘energy of nominations’. Every CWC member is nominated by Congress president Sonia (earlier by Rahul), simply as PCC/DCC chiefs/committees are, and PCC/AICC delegates are picked by means of loyalty monitoring by way of chains of nominated panels. Nominated members’ (together with CWC’s) stints, continuation and elimination is the only discretion of the social gathering chief. Even when elected, the Congress MLAs convey their choice for a to-be-CM at post-poll CLP meets by “authorising” the social gathering chief to do the honours.

Management typically makes a gallant present of ‘patronising’ and ‘selling’ kids, Dalits, different socially backwards and even deadwood by means of ‘nominations’, however ensures none emerges as ‘elected members’, who cannot be eliminated/managed by the Congress president. Then Congress chief Sitaram Kesri, regardless of scoring an amazing Congress presidential ballot victory towards heavyweight Sharad Pawar (and vocal Rajesh Pilot) by means of the nominated loyalty of PCC delegates, couldn’t foil his overthrow inside months by the CWC as a result of “Chacha” had by then bought saddled by the dare and weight of the ‘elected CWC members’ of the Kolkata session. Even docile ‘durbaris’ can chunk as soon as ‘elected’ to the CWC. After succeeding (CWC-sacked) Kesri as Congress chief, Sonia by no means took the danger of holding elections to the CWC, nor did Rahul. They opted for ‘choreographed’ authorisation by AICC periods for the social gathering president to ‘nominate’ the CWC members, together with half the slots initially meant for ‘election’.

The “invitee classes” are supposed to additional shore up the president’s loyalists within the CWC. Sonia rejected the demand of change seekers to carry a gathering of “solely” the common CWC members. That will have meant 20 (after 4 vacancies), thus making it 17 loyalists towards three change seekers – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and ‘on and off’ Mukul Wasnik. With just a few extra these days exhibiting a penchant for talking up, the ‘danger’ of a compact gathering was prevented.

As a substitute, Gandhi once more made it an “prolonged CWC” assembly with the reinforcement of nominated loyalists within the type of 36 invitees, thus making it a gathering of 56, or 53 Vs 3. Thus, the face-to-face offline mega meet performed out as a carnival of loyalists’ mob, able to ‘lynch’ any voice of dissent.

From that echo chamber, Sonia declared she was a “full-time, hands-on, Congress president” to the identical CWC members who had made her “interim president” in 2019. It was the unquestioning assure of “we would like Rahul” loyalists that emboldened Rahul to demand “ideological readability” (sic) from them regardless of his document of getting favoured ex-saffronites Sidhu, Patole, Sanjay Nirupam, Revanth Reddy to go PCCs. The mob consolation additionally impressed the ‘idealist’ in him to brag concerning the magnanimity “of creating a Dalit” the CM and publicise how CM Channi, in return, “cried over telephone” to him in gratitude.

However, there are not any free lunches. CWC members/three CMs, who fiercely shielded the Gandhis, typically had, and may have, their very own want record as return items. These embody their rights to advertise their very own youngsters and cronies, to stunt their turf rivals, to reject unacceptable calls for to surrender workplaces or accommodate in-house rivals, to cement their social gathering posts or search higher slots as one other spherical of organisational elections begin with a cautious assortment of trustable PCC delegates to fan Rahul inheriting the publish from his mom, or nonetheless go for established order, relying on what fits them, within the pre-poll scene.