Monday, July 9, 2018

Congress state units disagree with central leadership over alliances


The trend signals how the party could be going back to the era where its regional satraps used to be influential and could stand up to even such leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel.



Several of the Congress party state units are currently at odds with the central leadership over the question of striking alliances and seat adjustments.

The trend signals how the party could be going back to the era where its regional satraps used to be influential and could stand up to even such leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. However, this had changed after Indira Gandhi came to lead the Congress and systematically replaced strong leaders in the state with darbaris and sycophants.

West Bengal
In West Bengal, the Congress state unit is split in two over whether it should align with the Trinamool Congress or not. A section of the party's leadership wants to have a seat adjustment with the Trinamool Congress.

However, senior state unit leaders like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury oppose aligning with the Trinamool. Chowdhury also has the support of the rank and file, which has suffered the brunt of the alleged violence by Trinamool cadres on Congress workers in villages and towns.

Cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharatiya Janata Party have also been the target of Trinamool's purported political violence. The Congress workers on the ground want their party to align with the CPI (M) to fight Trinamool unitedly. They argue the cadres of the two parties, the Congress and CPI (M), are already fighting Trinamool's alleged political violence unitedly on the ground.

A three-cornered fight in West Bengal would also better serve the national objectives of the central leadership of the Congress. It would prevent the BJP, which is on the surge, to capture the opposition space in the state. This will help a split in anti-incumbency votes and ensure BJP wins lesser number of seats than it would in a bipolar contest.

The state unit of the Congress met party chief Rahul Gandhi last week. Gandhi met each of them individually to understand the situation.
Story By BS

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