Can Mallikarjun Kharge’s jumbo CWC strengthen the Congress?

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with Rahul Gandhi. (File image)

When Mallikarjun Kharge was elected Congress president last October, party insiders had remarked that the reconstitution of the Congress Working Committee would be his next big challenge as he faced the tough task of balancing the demands of the Gandhi family and putting together a team which would provide necessary representation to different castes, regions, women and youth as promised at the Raipur plenary session.

Though there were no major complaints after Kharge  unveiled  his team on Sunday, ten months after his election, the exercise did invite  minor quibbling over the over-representation given to small states like Kerala, Haryana and Punjab which have three to four members each in the party’s highest decision-making body.

The inclusion of Shashi Tharoor, who fought unsuccessfully against Kharge in the  election for the party president’s post, as well as Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Manish Tewari and Veerappa Moily, all members of the now dead G-23 which had demanded an active party chief and internal organisational reforms, means they have shed the “rebel” label and have been successfully reintegrated in the party.

Kharge’s ‘Team 2024’

However, as far as Kharge is concerned, the  goalpost has now shifted: Having put in place a new team, the Congress president’s next big test is to ensure that this mammoth 84-member Congress Working Committee, which includes regular members, permanent and special invitees as well as those in charge of frontal organisations,  provides the requisite leadership to deliver  in the year-end assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana and subsequently in the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha poll. In fact, optimistic Congress members were quick to dub the reconstituted CWC as “Team 2024”.

It is no secret that Kharge’s stewardship of the party will come into question if the electoral results do not meet everyone’s expectations while a positive verdict will be credited to Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. Kharge will have to move quickly to deal with any dissensions in the ranks and also see that the “election team” succeeds in enthusing party workers to put their best foot forward in the electoral battles ahead.

As far as the poll-bound states are concerned, an effort has been made to see that factional battles do not prove to be a hindrance in the selection of candidates and running a smooth and effective poll campaign.

Delicate Poll-Eve Balance

Consequently, the inclusion of former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who has been locked in a protracted battle with CM Ashok Gehlot, in the main CWC is a move in that direction. By accommodating Pilot in the highest decision-making body, the party leaders have sent out a message that the young leader enjoys their confidence and should not be ignored despite the fact that he led a revolt against his own government three years ago. Pilot, on his part, will now have to end his feud with Gehlot and work closely with the chief minister in the coming polls.

Similarly, in Chhattisgarh, the other election-going state, Kharge has attempted to buy peace by including senior leader Tamradhwaj Sahu in the 39-member main body of the CWC. Sahu was in contention for the chief minister’s post along with Bhupesh Baghel and T.S.Singh Deo. Baghel had pipped the others to grab the top job but tensions continued to simmer and there was a constant fear that the unhappy leaders could be poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party. With elections a few months away, the party could not allow this rift to continue. It first mollified Singh Deo by appointing him deputy chief minister and has now given Sahu a seat at the party’s high table.

There are no major surprises as far as Madhya Pradesh is concerned. Veteran leader Digvijaya Singh, who publicly declares that he knows the state like the back of his hand, figures in the list of regular CWC members while the inclusion of Kamleshwar Patel and Meenakshi Natarajan, known for her proximity to Rahul Gandhi, covers the youth quota. Though former chief minister Kamal Nath has been kept out despite his seniority and experience, the fact that he remains head of Madhya Pradesh Congress means he continues to be the party’s chief ministerial face.

Kharge Plays It Safe

However, this balancing has not been confined to the poll-bound states alone but extended to others as well. Pratibha Singh, wife of late Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who made an unsuccessful bid for the chief minister’s post, is a permanent invitee to the CWC while former Gujarat Congress chief Jagdish Thakor and former Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar are also on the coveted list.

Though there has been a conscious attempt by Kharge to give representation to young faces and leaders belonging to the backward classes, scheduled castes and tribes with an eye on next year’s general election, there are murmurs  in the party that inclusion of veteran leaders like Ambika Soni, A.K.Antony and Meira Kumar could have been avoided and instead younger faces accommodated in their place.

But despite the excitement about the composition of the new working committee, it is also true that this panel has its limitations. True, it can provide the requisite leadership to strengthen the party organisation but it can only go so far if Congress strategists do not delineate a credible roadmap, a clear ideological stance and a fresh narrative to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Anita Katyal is a Delhi-based independent journalist. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.