Centre's stage

Rahul Gandhi-led initiative hopes to turn around the Congress's fortunes in Gujarat

- BY BADAR BASHIR

IN THE DISTANT Meda Adraj village in Gujarat’s Kadi assembly constituency, hundreds of dalits were upset with the Congress. Predictably, the Congress's dalit face, MLA Jignesh Mevani, was assigned to assuage them. A week before the by elections on June 19, he stirred the villagers with the slogan ‘Jai Bhim’ and made promises of “social justice” and “development”. The small crowd appreciated his effort, but it was too early for them to reward the Congress. The party lost Kadi and Visavadar seats to the BJP and the AAP.

The bypolls had mobilised the Congress for a short while, but party leaders say it is the non-electioneering phase that is the major concern.

And at the centre of this concern is the falling apart of the party’s “operational backbone” at the grassroots level, its district offices.

When THE WEEK visited the Congress's district hub in Mehsana, of which Kadi assembly is a part, the people did not know about the office. “It's mostly shut,” a local in the same building remarked. “At most it opens thrice a month.”

The disintegration of the district offices started just after the party's defeat in the 2017 assembly elections. As per senior office bearers, more than 60 per cent of the Congress’s 41 district offices in Gujarat are dysfunctional. This has made around 70 assembly seats (of 182) politically infertile for the party.

Out of power for about 30 years, the Congress is facing fatigue in the state. While some of the leaders appear dispassionate, hopeless and above all, limited in number, there is lack of energy among the foot-soldiers.

“With the new formula of appointing district presidents based on merit by the central leadership, the organisational performance will have an upward trajectory. It is about to level up, that is for sure,” said Mevani.