As Congress leaders in Karnataka openly discuss a possible change of Chief Minister in the state, party president Mallikarjun Kharge has dropped a bombshell by stating that this is a matter for the party leadership to decide, adding, "No one can say what is going on in the high command”. Clearly, he doesn't seem comfortable dealing with the crisis in his home state directly.
While the BJP jeered that the so-called ‘high command' was nothing but the Gandhi family, an opposition MP, mocking the party, said its leadership was like a "ghost" that couldn't be seen but only felt and heard.
Interestingly, many within the Congress are genuinely surprised by Kharge's response. Why is he not asserting the power of his office? Is the Congress president being ‘remote-controlled', as the BJP says? At a time when Randeep Singh Surjewala, the AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, was in Bengaluru to interact with MLAs, why did Kharge signal that he had nothing to do with the state crisis? "From 1969 until now, we have always regarded the Congress president as the ultimate authority - the party high command. We had never treated any person other than the Congress president as more powerful. That's why Kharge's remarks come as a surprise. We do not know what has changed with Kharge's elevation. He is, after all, an elected AICC president," lamented a Dalit leader.
Of course, no one in the Congress seriously believes that Kharge's powers have been clipped or eroded. If anything, the Congress leadership has generally stood by its party president. Many even believe that Shashi Tharoor got a bad rep with the Gandhis because he chose to contest against Kharge for the party chief's post - they would have rather liked for Kharge to be elected unopposed. It is only that Kharge has seemingly not been too happy with the responsibilities of his office, given his advancing years. Travelling across the country on election campaigns may be a bother - it's the Gandhis who usually do much of the heavy lifting for the party's political campaigns during election time.
At the same time, Congress sources admit that decision-making in the party has been quite tricky. Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi does take a lot of interest in party matters and has emerged as the ultimate arbiter in the party's affairs. He still gets to decide policy issues as well as matters such as allocating assignments. That is perhaps why Priyanka Gandhi still remains the AICC general secretary without any specific task. That, apparently, is not a very comfortable position for her.
Another of Rahul's ideas has been to rebuild the organisation from the district level. After declaring 2025 as "the year of the organisation", the party has been working to strengthen its foundational structure. The core focus area in this revival plan has been the district committees. The only drawback in the whole effort, however, is that the approach has been top-down - that is, groups from outside the states have been sent to set up district-level teams.
Against this backdrop, it may be worth recalling how in 2022, soon after he was elected as the AICC president, Kharge had turned down the suggestion that he should give up his position as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in keeping with the AICC resolution of ‘one person one post'. But, aware that the LoP was a constitutional post, Kharge rejected the calls to relinquish it. Also recall how in 1996, soon after the Congress was voted out, PV Narasimha Rao was pressured to quit his post as Congress president. Rao eventually did resign the same year, when summons were issued in the Lakhubhai Pathak case, as he didn't wish to drag the party into his personal matters. It was one decision he came to regret deeply later, when his fellow Congressmen deserted him. He was almost exiled from the party, left to fight his court battle alone (that he ultimately got a clean chit in the case is another matter).
Is Kharge, too, facing similar pressures today? He is a wise man; may he know how to navigate this tricky Lutyen labyrinth.
(The author is a senior journalist)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
