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An injured Congress may term it unethical and solely blame BJP’s political maneuvering for the fall of the Puducherry government. However, instead of putting its failures on others, the party should introspect and take remedial measures to prevent the repeat of such incidents. This is the fall of the fourth Congress government since 2014. Each time, the fall of the Congress government became inevitable as party MLAs decided to leave the party in big numbers because of differences with the party leaders. In Madhya Pradesh, the government led by Kamal Nath fell as Jyotiraditya Scindia was dismayed after being denied the coveted Chief Minister post. Thus, Scindia along with his supporters left the party and in the process the Kamal Nath government collapsed. The same drama was enacted in Arunachal Pradesh too where 40 Congress MLAs left the party and formed a new government. Karnataka also witnessed similar drama and the same game was played in Rajasthan too. In Rajasthan, it was Sachin Pilot who attempted to upstage the Ashok Gehlot government. But the government survived as Pilot failed to muster enough MLAs to sidestep the anti-defection law. The moment Pilot is able to garner requisite support, the Gehlot government will not last long. If we further scrutinise Congress’ activities, we will find that the party even lost the chance of forming the government in both Manipur and Goa, despite emerging as the single-largest party in the Assembly elections. It’s clear that the century-old party is drifting into political oblivion due to internal bickering.
So to revive the party, Congress will have to put its house in order first. Leaders, with connections at grassroots level need to be groomed to take on the mighty BJP. Young leaders should be given prominence both in the organisation and as well as in the government. The party will have to inject new blood to bring back its rickety organisation back to good health. Such remedial measures are not difficult to follow. But for reasons best known to them, Congress leaders have always avoided taking such measures. Rather, they prefer to indulge in sycophancy. For example, recently few senior party leaders wrote a letter to Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi urging her to elect a full-time party president. The writers were quickly branded as rebels and were sidelined. With no space for compromise in sight, it will not be a surprise if some senior Congress leaders decide to leave the party, sooner rather than later. Clearly, the party is in shambles to say the least. Inactions of the party’s top brass have made the situation even worse. The grand old party of India has now become a paper tiger in true sense with its presence only felt on social media. No political party can emerge stronger by only issuing statements. If the Congress is truly interested in regaining lost ground, it should go back to basics and rededicate itself to the service of the nation.