The Congress, once a leading player in the country’s commercial capital, has seen its appeal steadily decline here over the past few years amid differences between senior leaders.
Mumbai: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has told booth-level workers of the party’s faction-ridden Mumbai wing to correspond directly with him on the issues they face and share their ideas and suggestions.
Infighting in the party’s Mumbai unit, led by Sanjay Nirupam, has lost the Congress substantial ground in the metropolis. But addressing local Congress workers in Goregaon Tuesday, Gandhi did not mention any of the bitterness.
“Party leaders are sitting on the stage and I too am standing here, but the real senapati (commander) is you,” Gandhi said, pointing to the thousands of Congress workers gathered.
“Who wins us elections? It is the Congress’ karyakartas. Every Congress party worker will be respected and made to feel secure… I want to make this promise to you that protecting you, the Congress party workers, doing the work of giving you constant support, of hearing your voice, is my responsibility and I will do it, come what may,” he said.
Gandhi also launched the Congress’ ‘Project Shakti’, which is similar to a project in poll-bound Rajasthan that seeks to establish a direct link between the party president and its booth-level cadres. As part of the project, the party will give its workers a WhatsApp number on which they can communicate with Gandhi’s office about their ideas and suggestions. The party also hopes to expand its worker base with the project, by inviting people to register on the platform with their voter identity numbers.
“We want to give you power,” Gandhi said, “We want every karyakarta’s voice in Congress to reach leaders and reverberate within the party. We understand your difficulties and we want to give you this message that this party is yours.”
“It is not a party of the leaders, it is yours. And in this party, the most important faction is you,” he added.
Its own worst enemy?
The Congress, which was once a leading player in the country’s commercial capital, has seen its appeal steadily decline over the past few years.
The party suffered its worst blow in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when it lost all the city’s six parliamentary seats, a defeat that saw strong leaders such as Milind Deora, Priya Dutt and Eknath Gaikwad losing their bastions.
At the assembly level, the Congress won just five of Mumbai’s 36 assembly seats in 2014, down from 17 in 2009. The party’s hold on Mumbai’s cash-rich municipal corporation has also slipped over the past decade, dipping from 71 corporators in the 227-member body in 2007 to 52 in 2012.
Its infighting dealt a further blow to the party’s strength in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in last year’s election, when the number of Congress corporators dropped to 31 despite Nirupam leading an aggressive campaign almost all through the year.
Divided house
Divisions in the party reportedly stem from disagreements between senior leaders, which often leave the cadres at a loss.
For example, former MP Priya Dutt is said to have serious differences with leaders such as Naseem Khan, one of the five legislators from Mumbai, and former Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh; former MP Gurudas Kamat and Nirupam too have had tiffs on social media. Mumbai party members also complain that former MPs and senior leaders rarely attend functions, campaigns and drives organised by the city unit, saying it sends the wrong message.
On Tuesday, too, Kamat and Dutt were not present at Gandhi’s address to the booth workers. A Congress leader, however, said their absence didn’t mean anything.
“Kamat met Rahul Gandhi at the airport. He has not been keeping well and has some blood pressure problems, so he could not come again in the afternoon, while Dutt was traveling,” the leader said.
“All their loyalists within the party and their karyakartas were present, which means that, despite factionalism, leaders are willing to unite under Rahul’s leadership,” he added.
A former Congress legislator from Mumbai said the idea behind the speech was to send a clear message to the workers that they were the ones who decide the party’s fate, and not the leaders.
“Yes, there are groups and there is factionalism because working styles of people clash, as happens in many parties across the country,” the former legislator said, “But truly, the way Rahul Gandhi has now paid attention to the issue and engaged directly with the party workers, if he continues with it, we should be able to get back to what Mumbai Congress’ strength used to be in the state assembly, and even beyond that.”
Going local
For his address, Gandhi took a page out of PM Narendra Modi’s campaign book and sought to establish a personal connection with the city.
Starting his speech in Marathi, he said, “Majha savanna namaskar. Apan sagle kase ahat (My greetings to everyone. How are you all)?”
He added that the ideology of the Congress was exactly like that of Mumbai, to accept everyone.
“Mumbai is a city that works to bring people together. Whoever comes in, irrespective of his caste, creed, colour, the city embraces him… Just like Mumbai, the Congress too takes everyone in. We only look at how the person is Indian and our own,” Gandhi said.