Friday, September 30, 2022

Indian opposition party seeks to shed dynastic rule image


1 / 8
India Congress Dynasty
Senior Congress party leader Shashi Tharoor files his nomination papers for the position of Congress party president, at the party's headquarter in New Delhi, India, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. India’s main opposition Congress party, long led by the politically powerful Nehru-Gandhi family, is set to choose a non-family member as its next president after a gap of more than two decades. 
(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)


ASHOK SHARMA
Fri, September 30, 2022 

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s main opposition party Indian National Congress is set to choose a non-family member as its next president as it struggles to recover before key upcoming elections.

While it's historically been led by the powerful Nehru-Gandhi family, Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi decided to bring in a new face during a challenging time for the party, which has been beset with crushing defeats in national and state elections since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party came to power in 2014.

Their choice fell on a trusted party leader: 80-year-old Mallikarjun Kharge from southern Karnataka state.

Kharge, a member of Parliament and a former Railways, Labour and Employment minister, filed his nomination Friday at the party headquarters in New Delhi. He will be challenged by Shashi Tharoor, 66, who spent nearly 30 years rising in rank at the United Nations before joining the Congress party in 2009.

If both Kharge and Tharoor stay in the race after the Oct. 8 deadline to withdrawal nominations, 9,000 party delegates will vote on Oct. 17 and the result will be announced Oct. 19.

The filing of nominations is a major step toward ending the party’s struggle to find a successor after dismal results in the 2019 national elections and Rahul's subsequent resignation.

“I tried to convince Rahul Gandhi to accept the party members’ wish to assume the post of president, but he is sticking to his stand that no one from the Gandhi family will be in the race this time,” said Ashok Gehlot, top party leader.

Rahul’s family has produced three of India's 15 prime ministers since independence, starting with his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru who served as the country's first. Two of them — his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi — were assassinated. The party ruled India for more than 60 years after India gained independence from British colonialists in 1947.

Modi, the current prime minister, has denounced Congress' dynastic politics. The party has been led by non-family members in the past, but Sonia and Rahul have been at the helm of party affairs since 1998.

"The party president is a key post, but never more than now after two general election losses and a vote base at 18% — half that of the ruling Hindu nationalist party," said Mahesh Rangarajan, a professor of History and Environmental Studies at Ashoka University. “Yet this is the single largest opposition party by far with a history of comebacks as in 1980, 1991 and 2004."

“The focus is on who, but the crisis is as much of ideas. It is about how to combine bread-butter politics with facing up to the new nationalism of the ruling party,” Rangarajan said.

Critics describe key leaders leaving the Congress party — including veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, who announced his own political party in September — as a revolt against the Nehru-Gandhi family’s domination.

In his resignation letter to Sonia, who has been serving as interim party president, Azad said that "the entire consultative mechanism was demolished by Rahul Gandhi when he took over as Congress vice president in 2013."

He lamented that "all senior and experienced leaders were sidelined, and a new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party."

Rahul is on a 3,500-kilometer (2,185-mile) walking tour of Indian cities, towns and villages over the next five months as he attempts to rejuvenate the party and win the people’s support ahead of two key state legislature elections in Himachal Pradesh state and Modi’s home state of Gujarat. The results are likely to impact the country’s next national elections due in 2024.

Gandhi loyalist, ex-UN diplomat in race to lead India's opposition Congress party


Tharoor, a member of parliament from India's main opposition Congress party, speaks during an interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation at his office in New Delhi, India

Fri, September 30, 2022 at 6:21 AM·2 min read

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An ex-United Nations diplomat and a veteran politician emerged on Friday as contenders to lead India's main opposition Congress party as it prepares to elect a new president from outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for the first time in nearly 25 years.

Shashi Tharoor, a three-term federal lawmaker who previously served as a U.N. Under-Secretary General, said he had submitted nomination papers to lead the 137-year-old party.

The Congress, which helped lead India's struggle for independence from Britain that was achieved in 1947 and dominated Indian politics for decades afterwards, has mostly been led by a member of the Gandhi family.

Sonia Gandhi is currently the party's interim president after her son, Rahul, resigned from the position in July 2019.

The party has seen its fortunes slide, losing two successive general elections since 2014 at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has also wrested control of some states from the Congress.

The BJP has long advocated a hard right nationalist posture and an end to what it is says is appeasement of minority groups in a pre-dominantly Hindu India. The Congress has typically promoted a secular polity.

Tharoor's candidacy will be challenged by veteran Congressman Mallikarjun Kharge, currently the leader of the opposition in India's upper house of parliament, who is also seen as a Gandhi family loyalist.

A former state lawmaker from eastern Jharkhand state has also filed nomination papers.

Madhusudan Mistry, the Congress official in charge of running the party election, said the Gandhis would remain neutral. "The Gandhi family has not endorsed anybody's nomination," Mistry told reporters.

Around 9,000 party delegates across the country will vote for a new Congress president on Oct. 17, with results likely to be declared two days later.

(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


India’s opposition Congress party likely to elect first non-Gandhi president in 25 years

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Fri, September 30, 2022 at 6:03 AM·3 min read

India's opposition Congress party is likely to elect a new president outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in nearly 25 years in an effort to revive its electoral fortune and revamp the outfit ahead of the 2024 general polls.

The Indian National Congress (INC), which was formed 137 years ago during India's struggle for independence from British colonial rule, has been in power in the country for the most number of years since 1947.

However, the “grand old party” suffered humiliating defeat at the hands of prime minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past two consecutive general elections.

Since the last defeat in 2019, several senior leaders have quit Congress citing a "leadership crisis". The call for a fresh election was made after Rahul Gandhi, the son of interim president Sonia Gandhi, stepped down after the poll debacle.

Ms Gandhi, the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, led the party for nearly two decades until 2017. The members of the Gandhi family have refused to stand in the party election.

Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and lawmaker from the southern state of Kerala, was the first person to file the nomination for the party's top post on Friday.

Mr Tharoor, 66, who has been a dissenter and vocal against the concentration of power with just the Gandhi family, said it was a "friendly contest" between colleagues.

He added: "Those who would like to continue the status quo would not be inclined to vote for me because I represent change, a different approach, and a vision to take the party forward in a different way as for some years we've been suffering setbacks."

Challenging him is a veteran politician and leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament), Mallikarjun Kharge.

The 80-year-old lawmaker from Karnataka state and a staunch Gandhi family loyalist filed his nomination supported by some of the top members of the party.

"All leaders, workers, delegates and ministers who came in support of me today, encouraged me, I thank them. We'll see what the results are... hopeful that I win," he said.

Sources in the party told The Independent that Mr Kharge's name was proposed by a group of top party men for his years-long association with the Gandhi family.

Cut outs of Sonia Gandhi (L), her son Rahul Gandhi (C) and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at a Congress rally (EPA)

"He is a grassroot leader and a Dalit. Mr Kharge has done way more in keeping the party together during times of crisis than others who just cry foul. State leaders have been asked to ensure that he becomes the next party president," said a member of the Congress, who did not want to be named as he is not officially authorised to talk to the media.

India’s 200 million Dalits, formerly untouchables, are placed on the lowest rung of an ancient caste hierarchy.

The third candidate in the fray is former Jharkhand minister JKN Tripathi.

While the election is touted to be a positive effort to unite the party after a series of defections, analysts fear that it is too late with the next general election less than two years away.

“The outcome of the election will have an impact on the next Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) elections. Once the Gandhi family steps down from the top role, the Congress party may not have an important place in the opposition alliance,” said Ramu Manivannan, professor and head of the department of politics at the University of Madras.

He added: “It is unlikely that anyone aside from the Gandhi family can inspire the opposition. Although the previous leadership was weak, no one can fill the vacuum and rebuild the party.”

“The current crisis within the Congress favours the BJP.”

The election will be held on 17 October and the counting of votes will be taken up a day later. Over 9,000 Congress party members are expected to cast their votes in the poll.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a five-month-long Unity March across the country to connect with locals and expand the party’s bases ahead of the general elections.

No comments:

Post a Comment