Year on, Congress without organisation in state

The Congress will complete one year without an organisation in the state tomorrow. All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge had dissolved the entire Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) with the sole exception of state Congress president Pratibha Singh on November 6 last year.

Despite several assurances, announcements and meetings, including with party’s top leaders Rahul Gandhi and Kharge, to reconstitute the HPCC at the earliest, the organisation lies defunct even after one year.

A senior Congress leader blamed the inordinate delay on internal differences in the party. “The organisation would have been in place a long time back if there was no internal conflict and strain. Despite several meetings, we are unfortunately still without an organisation,” he said.

Another leader pointed out that organisational activities had come to a complete halt in the state, which is damaging the party. “The party workers are disappointed and dejected. The delay is sending out the wrong message to them as well as the public. Once the workers feel alienated and ignored, it becomes very difficult to get them activated again. The new HPCC president will face a tough time reigniting the fire in the dispirited workers,” he said.

Party leaders and workers at the district and block level had started showing their frustration with the party leadership over the delay a long time back. In a function in Bilaspur in May, a local leader had publicly asked Pratibha Singh to resign as HPCC chief if she was not being heard by the party high command on the issue.

Even though a year has gone by, there’s still no telling when the organisation will be reconstituted as the party high command has not been able to name the new HPCC president. Apparently, the HPCC will be reconstituted after its new president is named. Several meetings have taken place concerning this, but the decision hasn’t been made yet. Following every meeting with the party high command, the names of new candidates for the post start floating in the air.

Without the organisation, the Congress can find it tough to fight the BJP in the elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies, which are due in the next couple of months. Even though PRI elections are not held on party symbols, they are clearly fought along party lines. And with the BJP having its organisation ready up to the booth level, it will have a clear advantage over the Congress if the latter fails to get its house in order by then.