Saturday, January 4th, 2025

Opinion: After the defeat in the elections, demand arose again from within, will Congress make major changes in the new year?

The Congress leadership has again talked about bringing about a big change in the attitude from the organization to the party. Last week, Congress Working Committee meeting was held in Belagavi, Karnataka. Big claims were made in it regarding these changes. However, the party’s proposed rally the next day and the campaign to begin on the same day were canceled due to the demise of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Well, whatever merger of the party was talked about in this convention was not the first Didn’t happen again. These problems have also been discussed in the earlier meetings of the party. Therefore, when these mergers were discussed in the convention, the question arose whether Congress would treat them this time? These issues are big for the party. In fact, whatever lead the Congress had gained in 2024 after its better performance in the general elections, it has lost by the end of the year after its poor performance in the Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. In such a situation, all those questions have again arisen before the Congress, which have been pending for the last several years.

what will be the change
In such a situation, the question is whether the party will solve these years-old problems in 2025 or will it just keep talking about it? Honestly, it is too early to say anything about this. By the way, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has said that 2025 will be the year of building the organization. But if the organization has to be strengthened afresh, then Congress will have to take tough decisions for this. Is the party leadership ready for such decisions?

This has been the biggest weakness of the party leadership in recent years. No decision was taken at the organizational level in the party meeting held in Belagavi. Many leaders have complained about this in recent times. Feedback was also given that important decisions in Congress are being taken by leaders who have less to do with ground politics. Issues related to this also came up in the convention.

The party leadership assured the workers who came to the convention that this time it is not just promising major changes in the organization but it will be implemented. But according to sources, many leaders raised questions before the party leadership regarding the attitude of not implementing it every time they talk about change. These people say that change in the organization is the most difficult task because if it is done honestly, many old pillars in the party will break and it will be difficult for many senior people to get a place in it.

Congress has been trying to create a balance regarding this for years and for this reason has been postponing the decision of change. But the careless attitude of the top leadership in this regard is increasing resentment within the party. A leader said, a few months ago, the entire unit in Odisha was disbanded to re-establish the party. This raised hopes among party workers in the state that some activism would increase there. But even after six months of disbanding the unit in July, the party has not been able to field a new team there. This shows what is the situation within the Congress regarding such decisions. And this is one such example.

Most of the Congress leaders believe that this is the biggest problem facing the party. Congress has not taken bold decisions for the last several years. Last year, in the Udaipur Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan, the party had made many big announcements in the name of change, but none of them were implemented. When Mallikarjun Kharge became the national president of the party in place of Rahul Gandhi, major changes were expected, but that too remained unfulfilled.

Where is the obstacle?
In such a situation, the question is where is the problem coming from? When there is a general opinion within the Congress that the party has become stagnant due to lack of major changes in the organisation, then why is this work not being done. After all, who’s stopping it? The answer is, there are many power centers within the party and the leaders associated with them. A state leader told NBT that a major change will be possible in the organization only when the party leadership will be able to muster the courage to break the lobby of old leaders who have established themselves like Angad. Until that happens, these claims have no meaning.

A party leader said that most of the general secretaries do not even visit their respective states and go there only during elections. Therefore they do not have any coordination with the state unit. At the same time, a leader said that unless the party is successful in giving the message that it is rewarding those who do better work, new enthusiasm will not be generated among the organization and the workers.

In Belagavi, a leader told Rahul Gandhi that the workers in Delhi are not able to meet him/her because they are surrounded by big leaders of the surrounding areas, in such a situation the party should increase communication with the workers. This type of complaint has increased continuously in the last few years. In such a situation, the answer to this question will soon be found whether Congress will adopt the path of bold reforms in 2025 or will remain idle.

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