Irrespective of the results in elections, the Congress always remains in the fray, in the sense that it is the opposition party in most States. It happens to be in the reckoning and irrespective of many regional parties that have come, the Congress is always in the mix and currently we have of course the INDIA block, where the Congress also is going to play a pivotal role in the alliance.
But the fact is that after so many years, we are at a stage where a question is being asked in many foras as to whether the Congress is a thing of the past? People seem to have lost hope and are saying that the party does not really have the strength to recover and take on the BJP.
It has always been the case in Goa in the last three to four years where the Congress is very near and yet so far. We saw what was happening in 2017, when the party was knocking on the doors of power and was almost ready to go to Raj Bhavan and stake claim to form the government.
The developments that happened thereafter is well known. The party missed out on coming to power. There were very serious allegations of last minute betrayal.
Now with the 2024 Lok Sabha elections coming up, and of course the next Vidhan Sabha elections will happen thereafter, it is probably a good time to look back into the glorious days of the Congress and reflect on how the party performed in the past when the going was good, the things that it did right, what are the changes that have happened now and how the Congress party gradually withered away.
However, it is also pertinent to note that Congress is not a party which is dead and gone. There is a lot of data to support the fact that there are large pockets where the people are still with it. But why is the party not being able to tap into this discontent against
the ruling dispensation, needs to be understood.
Reflecting on the glory days of the Congress Francisco Sardinha, MP, South Goa said, “If you see, whatever development that has taken place in Goa as well as in the country, it is only because of Congress. I don’t say that the BJP government is doing nothing, but whether in Goa or at the Centre, they have been promising they are trying to touch the sky when they are not even in mid-air.”
“So, whatever promises they have made, have not been fulfilled by them. We have seen now what has happened. Things have become very expensive and the poverty in India has gone up further, though they show that we are doing well. Now the economy is in the hands of a few industrialists, who are becoming richer and richer. But this
was not the case in the olden days,” Sardinha said.
While Congress’ fortunes have fallen now, what did the party do right then to get mass support? Although, BJP was not there, but there were other opposition parties. Congress party must have done something right then?
“Yes, we have performed well. But many times, we have seen people wanting a change. Voters get lured by the lofty promises made by the candidates from opposition parties and decide to give them a chance. But soon, they realise their mistake. So, the same thing is happening here. But one thing we have seen with BJP is if they don’t have followers, then they try to buy leaders. It is not only in Goa, they have done it in Maharashtra, they tried to do it in Karnataka. They have done it in every place,” the South Goa Lok Sabha MP said.
“In Goa, they succeeded because the governor was theirs. So they marched in front of the governor and then she allowed them because they had a majority. Though, according to rule, the single largest party should be given first chance to stake claim to form the government. We had 17 MLAs and they (BJP) had only 13 correct.
They marched with all the opposition together,” he said.
It is very well known that you can only progress in any walk of life if you introspect. If an introspection is requested and look at what one needs to do to ensure for the party to revive itself and get back to its former glory, what would be the outcome?
“Yes, in a democracy, the only way to come back or to improve is to have better relations with the public. That’s why Rahul Gandhi undertook Bharat Jodo Yatra so that he could convey to the public what are the thoughts of Congress party on various national issues,” Sardinha said.
The South Goa MP said that similar initiatives need to be taken in Goa.
“We can have more public meetings, go to every village and convey to the people where this government has failed. For example, we are exporting refined petrol at Rs 75 per litre, whereas selling in the country for Rs 95 per litre. The government is making Rs 20 per litre at the cost of the people. They call this development,” he said.
When asked about where has the Congress party specifically gone wrong, Agnel Fernandes, former Congress MLA, said, “Earlier we used to have strong leaders, both at the Centre and State. We have slid in recent times because of the mess-up done by our leaders here. We had leaders who couldn’t even win panchayat elections. They were put in charge of the party.”
“Like I’ve said many times, the job of these people was just to do business, not to bring the party up. They were there for their own selfish needs and that is how the party went down. I mean, people are there still with the party because there’s a vacuum in the party’s leadership. People are looking out for other alternatives. That’s how people went to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Revolutionary Goans (RG). The leadership failed them,” Fernandes said.
“You know, all these people who come from Delhi, they too didn’t live up to the expectations of the public. The voters of Congress don’t go out to vote because they don’t want to vote for BJP. The Congress supporters don’t vote because they don't want to vote for anybody. Last time they saw hope in the RG party and AAP. That’s how the Congress votes got divided,” the former Congress MLA said.
“We are stranded now because there’s no proper leadership. Till you have a strong leader here in Goa. I don’t think we are going to come up,” he said.
But what about the organisation itself, because before the 2017 elections, everybody worked hard. Sardinha was also there, everybody got together, and the committees were in place, the frontal organisations worked hard.
“When we got 17 seats in 2017, I was at my house with Luizinho Faleiro and Churchill Alemao, the count was 18, we brought Govind Gaude to my house. The numbers became 19. Rohan Khaunte lived below my apartment. We had 20 MLAs on our side that day. Digvijay Singh was somewhere else. So with this 20, Rohan said you get the 21st, I’m with you. This was happening in my flat in Panjim and Digvijay Singh was not there. We then went looking out for Vijay Sardesai. I will blame the leadership for not taking the call at the right time to go to the governor. We had 20
MLAs on that night,” the former Congress MLA said.
Speaking about her takeaways regarding the changed status of Congress party, Prof Alaknanda Shringare, political analyst and Assistant Professor of Political Science at D D Kosambi School of Social Sciences and Behavioural Studies, Goa University, said, “I first want to reflect more on the Election Commission data itself on how the vote share of Congress party is still intact. In fact, it has been increasing since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. If we are only focusing on the Lok Sabha election of 2009, 2014 and 2019 you will find a continuous increase in the vote share of the Congress, which actually comes to 21% increase in one decade, from 2009 till 2019.”
“Although there is an increase in the vote share, as it has been rightly mentioned, there is some kind of a leadership crisis which the Congress is facing and that is creating some kind of a confusion in the minds of the voters, especially of the Congress. Like, if they vote, what will be the future of that vote? That is the one thing which plays in their mind,” Prof Shringare said.
“But still I feel the Congress voters are intact, because if you look at 2019 and 2022, also between 2017 and 2022, there were defections. In the 2022 Assembly elections, we saw a little bit of a slide of vote share, mainly because of the entry of the new political parties, as said earlier,” she said.
But when you look at the vote share of both BJP and Congress from 1991 Lok Sabha elections onwards, almost more than 50% of the vote share is taken up by BJP and the Congress. The people are either voting for the BJP or for Congress.
“I think we should not neglect this data. When it comes to the upcoming election, the INC is having a bigger challenge because they have to retain the South Goa seat which is there with them at present. So how the Congress is able to do it, is something which we have to see,” she said.
This vote bank seems to be completely intact. Has any mapping been done to see whether it’s the old traditional vote bank or the new voters, because population demographics is also changing? So, in terms of new voters, what is
the trend?
“We have done a different analysis. When we look at the social as well as the economic aspect, definitely the younger voter percentage is still going towards the BJP, same is the case with highly educated voters. But when it comes to the lesser educated voters, their tilt is towards the Congress. In Goa it’s more of the caste and religion that play an important role when it comes to the elections. So here I think, Congress is able to get a large number of the Muslim and Christian votes in the last decade,” she said.
“The Muslim votes which used to go to the BJP, have come back to the Congress in the last few years and I think for this Lok Sabha elections, it is also important to note that they are still relying on BJP and the Congress because voters are still not moving out of these two political parties. So that is something which has to be taken into account,” she said.
Being one of the senior-most leaders, Sardinha has perhaps seen it all, from the rise and fall of his party and mass defection by former MLAs from the organisation. When asked the reason for such absolute veterans moving away to another party and what made him not to follow them, he said, “There are two things. One is our listening to our colleagues. It is not really the issue of caste. Religion I agree, because a large chunk of Hindus are with the BJP, although many are with us too. The second thing is the party's environment. If people are not happy, though they have a liking for the party, they want to achieve their goals. So, many people have defected for plum posts, others have defected for money because BJP has got money to burn, not to spend.”
“See, what has happened now, recently eight of our MLAs have defected. There are rumours that they were given Rs 40 to 50 crore each. So, many people fall prey to this huge sum. Rs 40-50 cr is not a joke, because they knew they would be in the opposition. I don’t say what they have done is right, but they have done it,” he said.
“Those who went, they cheated the public, their voters. But those who have taken them are also responsible for that. So we have to make clear to the public that those who have gone are rogues, but those who have taken them are also the same. So, once you bring to the notice of the people, they try to forgive the Congress MLAs, who have gone there not out of their will, because they were forced,” Sardinha said.
“We have seen what has happened in Maharashtra. So many people have joined the BJP because the Enforcement Directorate was after them. As soon as they joined the BJP, all charges got washed off and they came out clean. Somebody became deputy chief minister, others became ministers. So, all these factors have to be brought to the notice of the public and this can be done only when we have this ‘Yatra’,” the veteran Congress party leader said.
“In democracy, you have to be in touch with the public, convince them, allow them to ask questions and only when people are convinced, they vote for you,” he said.
To do this, shouldn’t the party be also strengthened? Organisationally, what should be done? What happens is you need to have your building blocks. You need to have your block committees in place, you need to have your frontal organisation in place. What is the state of the party in terms of organisation?
Responding to this question, Fernandes said, “In 2017, I was given the job of getting Babush to contest on Congress ticket because he wanted to contest as an Independent. A Chellakumar, who was in-charge of Goa, told me to go and talk to Babush. I got Babush, they gave him a ticket and he won. Then, when Babush left the party, Chellakumar asked me whom did I bring? I said you had sent me to bring him. But when I asked Babush, he told me after he got elected, we landed up in the opposition. These leaders coming from Delhi, don’t even bother to ask how we are, what is happening with the party? They just left soon after the polls.”
“Their job is to come during the time of election, give tickets, strike whatever deals they can and go back. After that, nobody is bothered about the MLAs or the party workers or anything like that. So that is how they go about doing their work. There are no regular meetings or programmes of the party or to take forward the party ideology. Nothing like that. You come only during election time. All these guys come. They have a coterie that comes, distributes the tickets and their job is done,” he said.
“I was a vice president last time. I didn't know anything about what was happening. They never took me into confidence for anything. I was a senior member, but they didn't care. People like Girish Chodankar and Dinesh Gundu Rao were dictating the functioning of the party. I knew of a meeting that took place between one casino owner, Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo and all these guys. I warned and said it in the press also. I warned Chidambaram. I said these guys have formed a group, they will contest on Congress ticket and go back to BJP. This I told four months before the elections. But they didn’t listen to me,” he said.
The Congress should really be introspecting where it has gone wrong. Looking at the basic goodwill that they still have, with so much of data and feedback available, they should tap into the support base with honesty and get onto the road of revival, as it were through this little process.
The other aspect that has been spoken about very extensively is revival of the organisational mechanism. Once you do that, then the leadership also grows. People at the grassroots get mobilised. Then the entire despondency gets converted into hope, which is extremely important. Then you identify leaders in local areas and give them that leadership and give them time to build on that leadership to ultimately become candidates in the Assembly and of course in the Lok Sabha elections.
For Assembly elections, the process is more intense and above all, it is important to have the right leadership, as everybody has said this is the only reason why one is assessing all this. In a true democracy, you may have a strong ruling party which has got a huge swell of support across the country, but without a credible opposition, democracy ultimately suffers, because you need the voice of dissent in Goa.
What is happening is that the Congress’ strong opposition voice has shrunk. The space of course has been taken over by very vibrant activists and other people. But at the end of the day, to initiate and do well in democracy,
you need a political party as an opposition party. An opposition cannot always be people, because they also have limitations.
But to oppose a legislation, to have discussions and to allow people to have an alternate voice when the ruling party is letting you down, you need a strong opposition. So, this is basically a lament at any level of democracy. That is what the Congress needs to understand and introspect, because it is not only about individual leaders who are defecting because of “development” and so on. It is not about suitcases, it is not about short-term benefits and getting sworn-in as a minister, because ultimately the health of democracy suffers because the people who need to be democratic, become weak and greedy.
It is also essential that the central and State leadership work in tandem and chalk out a long-term strategy for the party in the State, which should go beyond elections. Elections happen once in five years. But preparation for the next polls should start from the day after the poll results are out, because the issues can be taken up in the Parliament as well as in the Assembly. Visibility on the ground is very essential for any political party, especially the opposition.
The Congress party needs to be more vocal and more visible amongst the masses at pan-India level, if it wishes to counter the money power of the ruling dispensation. It is time for the Congress party to pull up its socks and go all guns blazing.