The Congress’ push for the caste census is aimed to rebrand the occasion as one championing the reason for the weak caste teams. #Caste politics is crucial to win in northern India (HT Photo)
Gandhi’s intransigence translated into a significant political victory for his occasion when the #Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs determined, on April 30, “to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census”. That similar night, Gandhi claimed credit score for the transfer, known as it the “first step” and “a new paradigm of development” however demanded that the federal government take away the 50% cap on caste-based reservation, and use Article 15(5) of the Constitution to implement quotas in non-public instructional establishments.
It was a uncommon win for a celebration that has had an in any other case forgettable yr, frittering away the chance inherent within the outcomes of the #Lok Sabha election, and managing to lose, from a seemingly invincible place, elections within the states of #Haryana and #Maharashtra.
Not surprisingly, the Congress would relatively speak concerning the caste census than anything.
The head of the occasion’s media division Pawan Khera claimed that whereas the third Modi authorities will likely be judged by its “lack of performance”, the “measurement for the Congress or the Opposition should be on the issues they have raised and its impact”.
“We had been vigorously demanding caste census publicly for past one year. The PM had labelled the Opposition as ‘Urban Naxals’ for making such demands. Finally. he was compelled to accept the demand for caste census. This is a big achievement for the Opposition, #Rahul Gandhi and (Mallikarjun) Kharge ji in the first year of Modi’s third government.”
The Congress’ push for the caste census is aimed to rebrand the occasion as one championing the reason for the weak caste teams. #Caste politics is crucial to win in northern India. But whereas the occasion’s success appears restricted to ideation; it has misplaced important political momentum, its plans for organizational revamp stays slow-paced, and the INDIA alliance itself faces fragmentation and an unsure future.
Loss of electoral momentum
100 seats within the #Lok Sabha election (Congress’s 99 seats + Pappu Yadav) charged up the Congress occasion after two lacklustre #Lok Sabha performances in 2019 and 2014. The occasion managed to have a Leader of Opposition standing within the #Lok Sabha after ten years and emerged as a substantial drive within the flooring of the House.
But, its loss within the #Haryana and #Maharashtra elections dented the occasion’s electoral momentum and raised a query mark of the Congress’s means to win elections in north India. In the #Lok Sabha polls, the Congress received 5 of 10 seats in #Haryana and had emerged as the largest occasion in #Maharashtra. It unexpectedly did not win #Haryana, the place the BJP has now set the file of successful three consecutive elections.
The organisation revamp
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge introduced in 2024 that 2025 could be the “year for the organisation”. After a string of electoral losses, the Congress has now taken a daring step: it needs to revamp its district committee and provides them extra obligations to decentralise the occasion hierarchy.
Khera stated Gujarat, #Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have been taken as “model states” for the scheme and the district turns into essentially the most important unit of the occasion. Gandhi himself went to Madhya Pradesh to kickstart the choice on Tuesday and, on Wednesday, he was in #Haryana.
But, the occasion has already missed the primary deadline for this train — rasing doubts on its means to finish the organisational revamp this yr. The Congress had beforehand introduced that the Gujarat district panels could be shaped by May 30. On Wednesday, Khera claimed the “list is there, just a few changes are being made and it should be out very soon”.
According to a senior chief, the Congress is attempting to repair accountability at each degree and “those processes have already started”.
INDIA bloc’s unsure future
On Tuesday, senior Opposition leaders met on the Constitution Club to demand a particular session of Parliament and known as it an INDIA bloc assembly. The assembly laid naked the group’s disunity as Aam Admi Party was conspicuous by its absence. The AAP didn’t need to be seen with the Congress in the identical platform.
After forging a pan-India alliance (besides in Punjab and West Bengal), the bloc confronted a jolt within the Delhi meeting elections this yr. AAP determined to combat alone and two key allies — TMC and SP — took its trigger, ignoring the Congress. And now, leaders preserve that the bigger alliance was just for the #Lok Sabha elections and never the meeting polls.
The Congress faces a barrage of elections within the close to future beginning with the Bihar polls later this yr. The occasion has centered on the Pahalgam terror assault, and the contours of the ceasefire with Pakistan (and the way this was achieved).
But, throughout the Congress there’s a demand that the occasion should develop a constructive agenda. At the AICC session in Ahmedabad in April, Congress chief Shashi Tharoor reminded his occasion of the necessity for “positive narrative” and never simply “negative criticism”, underlining that youth need to know “what the party will do for them today”.
“We have an illustrious history. But we are all too conscious that young voters of today do not apparently give much importance to history. They want to know what we will do for them today and what kind of tomorrow we can provide them,” Tharoor stated, underlining a brand new churning within the grand outdated occasion.
As the primary yr of the #Narendra Modi authorities’s third time period ends, Tharoor was within the US and Latin America, placing forth India’s case on Pakistani terror. That indisputable fact that it was the federal government and never the Congress that nominated him within the outreach delegation tells a narrative in itself.
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