Amid ‘consultations on Kishor,’ G-23 leaders flag ‘deep divide, distrust’

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 24

Amid the ongoing discussions on the role of election strategist Prashant Kishor in the Congress and his plan for party’s revival, signs of acute division are surfacing in the grand old organisation with a section of G-23 leaders flagging “a deepening divide and deep distrust” over their complete exclusion from the exercise.

None of the G-23 members that include senior party leaders, former ministers and sitting MPs has been engaged in the discussions on the Congress revamp roadmap proposed by Kishor or on the strategist’s future role in the party.

A segment of the G-23 leaders who spoke to The Tribune on Sunday said this “exclusion and insult have hurt them very deeply.”

“After our exclusion and insult, there is a deepening divide and deep distrust. What was the point of Congress president Sonia Gandhi holding reconciliation meetings with the group if we had to be marginalised in the discussion process related to the revival of the party, something the G-23 flagged in writing to her way back in July 2020? It remains to be seen now if at least some G-23 leaders will even be willing to talk again,” a senior G-23 member said.

Another G-23 leader noted that “trust had been broken at the highest level” and asked, “Can a poll strategist revive the party in a better manner than veterans who have served it for years? Also did Mamata Banerjee or MK Stalin ask a strategist how to run their party? Can such a divided Congress ever fight the BJP?”

Signals of hurt among a section of senior G-23 leaders ahead of the party’s “chintan shivir” scheduled in May could take any shape, a source said, questioning the Sonia-constituted committee debating Kishor’s proposals.

A G-23 leader flagged the absence of any Lok Sabha member from the panel, asking whether or not views of elected representatives mattered in the Congress. The committee includes veterans AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik and Randeep Surjewala.

With anguish brewing in the G-23 camp over the goings-on, it remains to be seen if the group would mount resistance should Kishor be included in the Congress.

At that time, small CWC groups were formed and Kishor was asked to make a presentation to them.

This time there has been no engagement on Kishor or his proposals with the G-23 leaders that include veterans like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, sitting MPs and former ministers Manish Tewari among others.

The entire exercise is said to have been led by AICC general secretary Priyanka Vadra with Sonia and Rahul almost on board now.

“We have been repeatedly insulted and humiliated for alerting the Congress leadership of the party’s precipitous decline,” a G-23 leader said, adding that the current exercise of committee formation and indulgence of Kishor was a “sham.”

Such exercises happened after the party’s 2009 Lok Sabha loss; after the 2021

loss in four states and also after the 2022 loss in five states, a G-23 source said.

Meanwhile, The Tribune today accessed the July 2020 letter the group wrote to Sonia, asking for urgent measures to revive the party. The signed letter, besides asking for “full-time effective leadership, appointment of district presidents, urgent reconstitution of the central parliamentary board, election of CWC members and an independent election authority for fair internal polls” had warned the Congress of electoral losses if the house wasn’t immediately put in order.

Since the letter was written, the party has lost 11 elections with historic defeats in Bengal, Kerala and UP, a G-23 leader said.

The original G-23 letter had noted, “We have witnessed a steady decline of the Congress Party reflected in successive electoral verdicts in States and General Elections in 2014 and 2019.  Reasons are manifold and need to be immediately identified. Otherwise, the Congress will find itself marginalised, both in the states, which is already apparent, as well as at the national level.”

The letter noted the loss of confidence of the youth as a matter of serious concern. 

“In the last two national elections, India had added 18.7 crore 1st time voters – 10.15 crore in 2014 and 8.55 crore in 2019.

The youth voted overwhelmingly for Modi.  The vote share of the BJP sharply increased from 7.84 crore in 2009 to 17.6 crore in 2014 and to 22.9 crore in 2019. In contrast, Congress lost its share of 1.23 crore of the votes polled in 2009. We have marginally crossed the 2009 numbers in the last Lok Sabha elections,” said the G-23 in July 2020.

They added that even after 14 months of the 2019 verdict, the Congress had not undertaken any honest introspection to analyse the reasons for its continued decline.

What we said in July 2020 holds good even today, a G-23 leader said.

Poll strategist meets KCR

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Sunday met Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao in Hyderabad ahead of a likely Congress meeting to debate his role. The meeting came days after Rao said Kishor would help the party with the 2024 Assembly elections. The Congress may find the development curious, being the principal opposition party in Telangana.

Excerpts of July 2020 letter G-23 wrote to Sonia

*An environment of fear has engulfed the country. Congress has a duty to reassure the people that it will defend their fundamental rights. This can be done only by a revitalised and resolute Congress that unites the progressive and democratic forces.

*The uncertainty over the leadership and the drift has demoralised the Congress workers and weakened the party.

*The CWC is not effectively guiding the party to mobilise public opinion against the divisive agenda and anti-people politics of the BJP government.  Its meetings are merely episodic and reactive.

*CPP meetings have been reduced to customary address of CPP leader and obituary references. The past practice of discussion has been discontinued.

*Appointments of PCC, DCC presidents are unduly delayed.  Leaders who command respect and acceptability in the state are not appointed in time and when appointed as PCC Chiefs, not given freedom to take decisions.

*Introduction of elections in the cadre feeding organisations NSUI and IYC has created conflict and division. Resource-rich individuals or those backed by powerful patrons have captured these organisations.

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