Harshini Brahmavar

Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Aug 27: The political developments one witnesses nowadays gives a clear indication that all is not well at the national level politics. All the parties are witnessing internal squabbles, differences, and tussles. Congress appears to be ahead in these matters as compared to others.

After the interim national president of the Congress recently expressed her inclination to resign, the party had experienced upheavals. As all the leaders together pressurized her to continue, Sonia Gandhi has agreed to continue as the party president for a temporary period.

The state Congress appears to be heading wayward. The situation here is volatile even though it looks normal from outside. The party leaders, who are helpless to do anything, are going through frustration.

Similar internal differences have been witnessed even in Udupi district Congress. In the previous elections, the BJP bagged all the seats in the district, and even the MP, MLCs and local administration went the BJP way. Now, even the constituency which was regarded as the strong fortress of the Congress has fallen to the BJP. There are many reasons for the Congress's downfall like the wave of Modi's leadership, the way the BJP is utilizing the services of its workers, internal differences within the Congress, leaders ready to defect to other parties, Congress inaction in using social media, failure to convince people about the shortcomings of the ruling party, shortage of capable leaders etc.

Since the last three to four days, a recording of U R Sabhapathi's conversation with a friend in which he is seen severely criticizing Pramod Madhwaraj, has been circulated in social media. In the conversation, Sabhapathi is seen using bad language about Pramod Madhwaraj and his mother. This development has made people angry at Sabhapathi. The people are asking whether such words befit a leader who has been identified at the national level, who has recently been appointed president of corona task force district committee, and district Congress coordinator.

There has been a feeling in the Congress since long that all the power is shared by seniors and the second generation is not getting opportunity to rule. After the demise of former Karkala MLA Gopal Bhandary, the party is being led by former Kaup MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake. Pramod Madhwaraj has the capability of bringing together elders and youngsters alike. Pramod lost the assembly election as a Congress candidate in 2018 and then the Lok Sabha election as a JD(S) candidate in 2019. Loyal Congress workers are still unhappy about this development. Pramod has stayed away from the party programmes since the last two years. He is seen with party leaders occasionally but not otherwise active. This proves that there are differences within the party.

After the assembly election, the party did not witness any activity. Slowly, protests, criticism, press statements etc are coming out from leaders like Sorake and Sabhapathi. After the BJP rose to power, there were certain developments in which the Congress could have seized the initiative and tried to browbeat the BJP. But it failed to capitalise on the opportunities. The fact that veteran Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, has stayed away from activities because of health issues, is hurting the party. Veteran Congressman Veerappa Moily, has confined himself to Bengaluru. It also seems that Prathapchandra Shetty has not been visiting the Congress office of late.

In the past, no one came forward to stop strong leaders from crossing over to other parties. This may be one of the reasons for the drubbing the party suffered at the booth level. In the local administration election, angry workers of the party walked out en masse. Still, the Congress leaders did not introspect on where they faltered.

Perhaps, if this large scale deflection was stopped and the workers were taken into confidence, the party would have won some of the taluk, gram panchayat, zilla panchayat and municipal seats. The party won just four seats in the municipal election here. This drops a clear hint that the Congress is more hurt by leadership tussle within the party rather than external factors. The party appears to be turning fragile.

Not grooming the second generation leaders is another failure of the Congress. However, the party can have some satisfaction from the fact that some young leaders are emerging of late. Moreover, those having leadership qualities did not get proper importance in the party. Many party workers felt that leaders who do not have the capacity to floor the ruling party and incapable to inspire young and emerging leaders got the chance to lead the party. It indicates that the party is searching for a capable leader.

Many believe that the leaders should work to set right the internal differences and sincerely try to re-establish the Congress back in the district. For this to happen they have stop fighting with each other for the sake of feeding personal egos and stop acting as if everything is hunky dory. The party workers unitedly feel that they need a leader who can lead from the front by taking everyone into confidence, and by organizing the party with conviction and leadership qualities.