This Article is From May 24, 2015

One Year of Congress in Opposition

File photo of Congress President Sonia Gandhi with her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: As the Modi government completes one year in office, the Congress party too is a year old as the principal Opposition party. And the party is getting into its new role rather aggressively.

In the past five days, launching a major counter offensive against the Modi government, the party has held eight press conferences across 25 cities and there are 20 more to go. Their agenda: highlight the shortcomings of the Modi government.

"One year ago there was a tsunami of promises and dreams by the BJP before the elections. But once the BJP came to power it forgot everything," alleged Congress leader Anand Sharma, adding, "their slogan sabka saath, sabka vikas is now sabka saath, kuck ka vikas."

Congress' counter offensive just seemed like an extension of the recently concluded session of Parliament where the party was at its aggressive best. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in a rare intervention, not only pointed out that the government had not filled up crucial posts of Chief Information Commissioner and the Central Vigilance Commissioners but called government's changes to the rules of implanting the Right to Information Act as a "brutal attack on the autonomy."

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's five Lok Sabha speeches in the last session alone, compared to his three speeches during UPA's entire 10-year tenure, blunted the Oppositions' attack on him for going on a two-month-long sabbatical.

So is the Congress' new avatar its 2.0 version or is it a carefully crafted strategy? "In Opposition, you have to speak more to point out shortcomings of the government of the day. That's the right thing to do," party leader Ambika Soni had earlier told NDTV referring to Rahul Gandhi's regular interventions in Parliament.

But BJP leaders say Rahul repackaged is more to impress the Congress' own members than them. "Congress numbers are so poor and there has been no revival of fortunes anywhere; that's why they have turned extremely aggressive, just to mark their presence," argues Chandan Mitra, BJP Rajya Sabha member and Editor of The Pioneer newspaper.

Mr Mitra says 2014 Lok Sabha elections not only reduced the Congress to 44 seats, its lowest tally ever, but also questioned Rahul Gandhi's leadership. "Rahul Gandhi is now trying to make a mark. By going to different places, by doing padayatra, they are just trying to record their presence and keep the morale of their own members up so that people don't start deserting them. That was a real fear," said Mr Mitra.

For the Congress, though, assembly elections will be an important yardstick to test its ability to make a political comeback. However, states that are scheduled to go to polls in the near future don't give much comfort to the Congress.

In Bihar, where elections are scheduled in four months, the party hardly has a presence. Their state governments in Kerala and Assam, states that go to polls early next year, face strong anti-incumbency. And in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the other two poll-bound states, the party is still weak. Clearly, any political strategy for revival must also factor in how to deal with electoral setbacks in the near future.
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