Sachin Pilot’s possible exit from the Congress Party has opened a new Pandora’s box of political realignment which can further deepen the crisis within the grand old party. Pilot, who is regarded as the working force behind the party’s win in Rajasthan in 2018 by defeating the incumbent BJP, was even speculated once as the replacement of Rahul Gandhi for the party’s top job.
Someone of his stature, snapping ties with the Congress party has raised several eyebrows. News channels report that Pilot has the support of 30 MLAs of the Rajasthan assembly. If proven right, this can put the Ashok Gehlot government in the minority.
The leadership crisis in the Congress Party is no longer a secret. It seems that every single individual is bothered about the party other than their own top brass. Rahul Gandhi’s flip-flop nature and reluctance to take responsibilities have cost them heavily in the consecutive elections. But the party’s unwillingness to go beyond the Gandhi family has resulted in the total alienation of its young talents. This includes Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora and plenty more.
The exodus of Pilot has exposed the vulnerability of the loose structure of the Congress party and the imminent potential fallout of more leaders to other parties soon. This is not the first time that leaders have deserted the Congress Party due to its unethical behaviour towards them. Big names like Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Jagan Mohan Reddy, Hemanta Biswas Sharma, Scindia, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, S.M Krishna and plenty more have all severed ties with the party in the past.
Hemanta had publicly stated that he was humiliated by Rahul Gandhi for snubbing him multiple times. He left the Congress for the BJP and played an instrumental role in making the NDA governments in all the states of North East India.
What needs to be questioned here is Congress’ desperate attempt to keep the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty at their political helm. With every other leader sidelined and the dynasty’s growing disconnect with ground reality, the future of the Congress looks dull, leaving behind any scope of revival.
The Congress party in Rajasthan was in shambles post the 2013 Assembly elections with the party winning just 21 seats and the BJP sweeping the State with 162 seats. The grand old party performed even worse in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the BJP winning all 25 seats in the State. It was Sachin Pilot who rebuilt the State’s Congress organisation and led it from the front to grab the State even with a wafer-thin majority. But things changed once Ashok Gehlot was chosen by the party’s high command as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Pilot was sidelined by giving him the token of Deputy Chief Minister.
It needs to be noted that the Congress passed through the same dilemma in Madhya Pradesh where the old guard got leverage over the Young Turk, Jyotiraditya Scindia. Scindia later left for the BJP, his loyalists resigned and the BJP formed its government in Madhya Pradesh with Shivraj Singh Chauhan as its Chief Minister.
From the political drama unfolding in Rajasthan and observing it’s striking resemblance with MP, ultimately, it can be said that the Congress party has not learned any lesson from their past mistakes. Have you ever wondered why there are no voices for change in the basic structure of the Congress party from the local leadership of various states?
The answer is that there are smaller dynasties within every State:
Without putting an end to this dynastic culture it’s impossible for the Congress party to nourish leaders on the ground level and fight with a cadre-based party like BJP. If at all Sachin Pilot joins the BJP and the Congress government falls, Maharashtra will be the Saffron Party’s next target since the already fragile Maha Vikas Aghadi has resorted to massive infighting.
With an over-ambitious party like the BJP on the other side, Congress has no chance of existence without a change of guard and altering its working style. Still having no intention of growing beyond an uninspiring leader like Rahul Gandhi, India’s oldest party is getting closer to its near political oblivion.