The recently concluded 2024 general elections can be interpreted in multiple ways. Who is the winner of these elections seems, at present to be the toughest question to answer objectively without sounding partisan. That is partly the symptom of the highly polarized times that we presently live in. But, in any case this is always a tough question to answer in an era of coalitions and divided mandate, that seems almost second nature to a multi-faceted and highly diverse polity like India. Since the last 40 years, no ruling party has managed a 40 percent vote share in the general elections. So, the mandate has been often been quite fragmented, just that the polarization of our times intensifies its’ effect. These complicated election results nevertheless provide several interesting takeaways.
One such takeaway which has attracted the attention of some analyst is the revival of sorts of the Congress party. It may be quite early to call it a complete revival, given that it managed to get only 99 seats, some 140 short of BJP. But proper political analysis cannot be done in void, without context. The fact that the Grand old party nearly doubled its’ seats from last time, fighting against the most popular leader in at least four decades and in the face of heavy odds, financial or otherwise does smell of the beginning of a revival. Besides, the Congress also discovered a cohort of young leaders with popular appeal in the form of the Geniben Thakors, Gaurav Gogois, Varsha Gaikwads, Sanjana Jatavs and a host of others. But this also point to a dilemma the party now faces. While these newfound heroes seem to be a blessing, the established Congress ‘heroes’ seems to be fast losing their mass appeal.
Questions have been raised about the Congress leadership and their lack of performance, for almost a decade now. While Rahul Gandhi seems to have been vindicated of these questions, at least for the time-being tough questions still stare at the face of the rest of the Congress top leadership. Almost unchanged for a decade, these leaders seem to have outlived their popularity. Most of them have lost the popular appeal or just don’t possess it. The Congress leadership has often been seen as unactive and unwilling to take on the BJP head on, manifested in many top leaders skipping the electoral race. The Congress tried to mend it this time. It fielded many top guns in the form of Digvijaya Singh, Bhupesh Bhagel, Anand Sharma, etc. But this did not yield sufficient results and the questions only gains more relevance.
The general popularity of the top leadership is also on the wane. This is clearly visible from the fact that its’ mostly Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi who do the heavy lifting in campaigning. To be sure the Congress has some popular faces or celebrities to attract crowds. But as the recent electoral performances of Kanhaiya Kumar and Raj Babbar in the general elections or Md. Azharuddin in the Telangana Assembly elections shows this popularity is not translating into votes. The Congress faces a great dilemma for its top leaders, both in terms of popularity and experience. But it needn’t go too far: the successes of its’ own young leaders or old horses like Tharoor and Manish Tewari offer a clear answer- hit the ground and take up your opponent head-on with local issues, rather than playing it out in the media. There is no alternative to getting in touch with the people and be their voice.