The beleaguered Congress will have to grapple with an additional crisis in the Lok Sabha as its “combative crew”, which troubled the Narendra Modi government despite the BJP’s brute majority over the past five years, has been vanquished.
The Congress has won a few more seats, 52 against the 44 in 2014, but the group that fiercely confronted the ruling party dominance is out.
Led by the veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, younger elements like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deepender Hooda, Rajiv Satav, Sushmita Dev and Ranjeet Ranjan had built an effective resistance to the Modi government in the House.
While Kharge commanded respect because of his seniority, deputy leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was treated with deference because of his clout within the Congress. Other younger leaders made a mark by their combativeness that never allowed the government a smooth sailing in the entire five-year tenure. Slogan-shouting in the Well and powerful debating skills of these members helped the party make a mark despite numerical disability.
Some leaders who were part of this combative crew, like Adhir Chowdhary from Bengal, Gaurav Gogoi from Assam and Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab, have won again. They will need assistance from new young members like Manick Tagore and Karti Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu, Hibi Eden and Remya Haridas Kerala, to create a new resistance bloc.
The Congress will get much greater assistance from other Opposition parties this time. While Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which had no member in the previous House has won ten this time, the DMK, which is opposed to the BJP, has a big bloc of 23.
Along with these new groups, the Trinamul Congress with 22 and around 27 more members of parties like the SP, NCP, JD-S, TDP, JMM, NC, IUML, CPI and the CPM, the opposition will have this time a bigger fighting contingent than that in the last Lok Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday flagged this while addressing the new members. He said: “I see some faces who helped us in the last Lok Sabha. Some fallen warriors who stood for the Congress party when we had 44 members. I felt it is going to be really a tough job against the BJP’s 282. But I must tell you very quickly that within a couple of weeks, I realised that 44 Congress members are enough to take on 282 BJP members. So, I am very confident that this time these 52 members are going to fight the BJP every single inch.”
Although Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi too will be in the new Lok Sabha like the previous one, they have never been part of the shouting brigade. The absence of Kharge will have a telling effect on the Congress performance as he successfully mounted incisive political attacks on the government in Hindi despite being from Karnataka. Other senior leaders Kamal Nath and Amrinder Singh were there in the previous House, but they scarcely participated in the proceedings.
Kharge’s absence has necessitated selection of a new Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha. The ability to speak both Hindi and English could be a critical factor in deciding the leader and seniority alone won’t be the criteria.
While Manish Tewari from Punjab perfectly fits the bill with his command over both the languages, he faces tough competition from Shashi Tharoor who comes from Kerala, a state that overwhelmingly sided with the Congress.
While the obligation to reward Kerala is doubtless a motivating factor — even Rahul is in Parliament because of that state’s support — Tharoor has a higher profile than Tewari. Tharoor has improved his Hindi of late, though he can’t match Tewari on this account. Tewari is also considered more grounded and political than the flamboyant Tharoor, making the choice difficult for the high command.
All this calculation, however, will be rendered futile if Rahul agrees to become the leader of the House. While Sonia has already been elected chairperson of the Congress Party in Parliament, Rahul may be willing to lead from the front after relinquishing the post of party president. There is, however, no clarity yet on his willingness to accept the post of leader of the House.
