Mallikarjun Kharge is the new Congress president, confronts old challenges

Kharge will formally take charge on October 26.

Rahul Gandhi posted a congratulatory message to Kharge on Twitter. His mother Sonia and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited Kharge at his residence to congratulate him.

“The Congress President represents a democratic vision of India. His vast experience and ideological commitment will serve the party well as he takes on this historic responsibility,” Rahul Gandhi wrote.

Graceful in defeat

Tharoor was graceful in defeat.

“It is a great honour & a huge responsibility to be President of @INCIndia &I wish @Kharge ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues,& to carry the hopes& aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India,” Tharoor tweeted.

Voting took place on October 17, in the sixth presidential election in the Congress party’s 137-year- history.

Kharge, a Dalit leader from Karnataka, will take charge at a time when the party has been reduced to power on its own in only two states – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- and occupies less than a tenth of the seats in the Lok Sabha, having suffered back-to-back defeats to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections.

Task cut out

The party also faces organisational issues including factionalism in some states, needs to restore and rejuvenate relations with allies and boost the morale of its own cadre.

With less than 18 months left for the next Lok Sabha elections, political experts say Kharge will have his task cut out as he sets out to take on an electorally resurgent BJP.

“Kharge is known to be an organisation man. His main challenge in the new role will be to rejuvenate the party organisation from the grassroots level,” said Ashutosh Kumar, professor of political science at Panjab University.

“As the party president, his priorities may also lie in how to ensure that popular leaders don’t leave or jump ship, to fill up organisational vacancies wherever they exist and to raise funds, particularly ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” he added.

The immediate electoral priority for Kharge will be elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat scheduled to take place over the next two months. Tackling factionalism in the states of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, which both go to the polls next year, will also be a key priority.

Factionalism

In Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and senior leader T S Singh Deo are locked in a power struggle. In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been in a tussle since the party came to power in the state in 2018 with his former deputy, Sachin Pilot. States like Punjab and Madhya Pradesh have also had internal battles that eventually saw the exit of its top leaders, who went on to join the BJP.

“Strong state-level leaders in Congress have become satraps in their own way. In the past, they have not even yielded to what the Gandhis say. So even under the new president, it would be very difficult to rein them in,” Kumar said.

One political gain Kharge’s election may offer the Congress is that it would have ammunition to counter the BJP’s often-repeated charge of practising dynastic politics, Kumar said.

The election of a new party chief through internal polls sends a ‘strong’ signal of the Congress prioritising democratic processes, said Ramesh Dixit, a Lucknow- based political analyst.

It also resolves the central leadership crisis in the party.

Bharat Jodo Yatra

Kharge’s appointment to the party’s top post comes at a time when Rahul Gandhi is engaged in the nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered its 42nd day and has reached Andhra Pradesh.

Political analysts stress that going ahead, the new Congress president’s challenge would be of outreach – both to the masses for electoral revival and to other opposition leaders to bring them on a common political platform.

“In my opinion, the main challenge for Kharge would be to appoint a team that helps him implement a plan of mass outreach. It has to be a team whose members are popular, recognizable by common voters. If it wants to be the central rallying point for an anti-BJP campaign ahead of 2024, it has to focus on improving in states where it is in a direct contest with it,” Dixit told Moneycontrol.

Kharge’s first day in office after he takes charge, Dixit said, should be spent working the phone and planning meetings with all the key regional opposition leaders.

“Congress has to forget its past glory days and has to make an honest attempt to approach other opposition leaders. No strategy to defeat BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections will be complete without bringing other opposition parties on board,” he added.

Kharge has risen from the ranks within the Congress party and has vast and diverse political and legislative experience.

Entering politics as a law student, he went on to lead the party’s city committee, served as a legislative assembly member for decades, became a minister in Karnataka government, led the party’s state unit, was elected to the Lok Sabha and eventually held the post of a union cabinet minister. He is currently a Rajya Sabha member and a part of the party’s top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC).