Mumbai: Congress president Rahul Gandhi kicked off the party’s Maharashtra campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha election Friday, lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making political attacks amid the ongoing India-Pakistan showdown, and reiterating his charge of crony capitalism against the government.
However, addressing a public rally at Dhule, he also took a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s book, and talked about ‘Made in India’ and ‘Made in Maharashtra’ while emphasising that only the Congress could deliver the vision.
“The most important agenda today is that of employment… China gives jobs to 50,000 people in 24 hours, while India gives jobs to 450 people in 24 hours. Modiji has wasted five years,” Gandhi said.
“We have to compete with China and ensure employment for India’s youth,” Gandhi added.
“You look at everything today, even the chappal you are wearing… says ‘Made in China’. We have to change that to ‘Made in India’ and ‘Made in Maharashtra’ and only the Congress can do that,” he added.
After the rally, the Congress president set off on an over-300-km journey to Mumbai, the second pit-stop in his quest to reclaim Maharashtra, a former bastion the party hopes to wrest from the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
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Many a challenge
However, the Congress chief has several challenges to overcome in this battle, most significantly the infighting in many of its units across Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, and a perception that the Congress has been a weak opposition to the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government.
Fissures in the Mumbai Congress unit, believed to be primarily responsible for the party’s near-decimation in the city where it was born, came to the fore once again last month when former Mumbai (South) MP Milind Deora flagged its alleged sectarian politics and infighting in a tweet.
A faction of Mumbai Congress leaders have also met the party’s senior leadership to seek the dismissal of Sanjay Nirupam, the president of the unit.
Apart from the state capital, there have also been reports of friction in party units for Pune and Vidarbha and, to some extent, in other pockets like Latur, Solapur, and Hingoli, political commentator Prakash Asbe said.
“The Congress has become very weak in Maharashtra,” he said.
“There is massive infighting in its Mumbai unit. The situation is only a shade better in the rest of Maharashtra. The party has not demonstrated the kind of power it needs to show to take on the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the state,” added Asbe.
“The Congress state leadership has not canvassed at the ground level to the extent that it should have over the past four years,” said a senior Congress leader who did not wish to be named. “Besides the Jan Sangharsh Yatra launched in August last year, there was no visible consistent attempt to connect with the masses.”
The yatra, launched from Kolhapur, was meant to highlight the “failures” of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state to fulfil promises, and the alternatives Congress had to offer.
Adding to the Congress’ problems is the fact that there is still some trust deficit between its members and leaders of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), its ally for this year’s Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra assembly elections.
Congress in Maharashtra
Maharashtra elects 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the highest after Uttar Pradesh (80), and is thus a key state.
Improving its tally in Maharashtra is especially important for the Congress in light of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh, where the tie-up is expected to shrink the space for other political players.
The state was a stronghold of the Congress till 2014, when the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance decimated it, reducing the party to its worst-ever tally of two seats, down from 17 in 2009.
The Congress-NCP alliance had together won 25 seats in 2009, but was down to six in 2014, with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance winning 42.
The Congress even lost Nandurbar, a constituency it had retained since Independence, from where members of the Gandhi family, since the time of late prime minister Indira Gandhi, were known to kick off their poll campaigns.
The Congress president will launch his campaign from the adjacent constituency of Dhule, with a rally in Dhule city, which the BJP recently clinched in the civic polls.
Later in the evening, Gandhi will address people in Mumbai, where some of the strongest party candidates, including Priya Dutt, Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam, lost in 2014.
His appointments also include a visit to the family of the late Congress leader Gurudas Kamat, who passed away last year.
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This report has been updated with details of Rahul Gandhi’s Dhule rally.