Keeping up with UP: Can Rahul Gandhi’s street activism revive the Congress in UP?

Can the Congress or its cadre in Uttar Pradesh amplify Rahul Gandhi's combative mood or remain bogged down with internecine troubles?

On the day Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was protesting in the streets of Delhi, belligerently raising the public issue of ‘vote chori’, Congressmen in Lucknow publicly exchanged blows, seemingly over organisational changes, at the party headquarters. That their leader was being battered and bruised did not worry them. Nor did the fact that the crucial assembly elections are coming up and the party’s prospects remained seemingly dismal.

Watching with dismay were senior Congress leaders, including the party deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, and his MLA daughter, Aradhana Mishra, the newly elected Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president. It was her first day in office.

Significantly, the scuffle involved the outgoing firebrand president Ajay Rai and a lesser-known woman corporator. The ugly scenes in the party office literally threw cold water on the hard work of their leader, whose various street strategies have evoked hopes but have yet to generate votes – remember, Congress has lost Bihar and UP looks distant. The reasons are many, including the image of a naïve politician the BJP has built of Rahul Gandhi

Gandhi’s public image has perceptibly improved, even though Modi supporters lose no opportunity to ridicule him for his political naivety. The old narrative that started from the times of the country's first prime minister, ‘After Nehru, who?’ or the perennial TINA (There Is No Alternative), remains in the air in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But can the Congress or its cadre in Uttar Pradesh amplify his combative mood or remain bogged down with internecine troubles? Infighting is not new to Congress; rather, it persists in every political party from top to bottom.

Congress' history of infighting

Old Congressmen recall the days of Kamlapati Tripathi vs Chandra Bhanu Gupta who despite their internal rivalry often cooperated strategically to engineer the downfall of their common rival like Sampurnanand. Later, the party infighting took a caste hue with the emergence of Rajput leadership in the 1980s and for several decades, it remained infested with a Brahmin vs Rajput one-upmanship war.

Sanjay Singh, the titular Raja of Amethi, was tipped to be the chief minister in 1980, but after much celebration, he was dropped in favour of another Rajput Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who went on to become India’s seventh prime minister. Singh launched both the Bofors campaign against Rajiv Gandhi and the Mandal initiative, granting quotas for the OBCs.

Congress leaders fought with each other -- Kamlapati Tripathi’s family from Varanasi vs Vir Bahadur Singh from Gorakhpur, ND Tiwari vs Vir Bahadur Singh, et al. Even Sripati Mishra, who replaced Vishwanath Pratap Singh in 1982, faced furious dissidence during his three-year tenure.

While they were stalwarts who were remote-controlled by Delhi, here a corporator was taking on an outgoing state chief of the party, Ajay Rai, who, irrespective of his temperament, had travelled the state extensively to galvanise the party. He not only gave a spirited fight against the country's PM in the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in 2024, but the party's overall tally also improved under his leadership.

The organisational changes in the Congress, made on the eve of elections, were also apparently triggered by the infighting that continues to plague the party.

The former AICC general secretary in charge of UP affairs, Avinash Pandey, and Ajay Rai had teamed up well. But soon after Pandey was replaced by Rajendra Pal Gautam, a prominent Dalit leader, speculation started about Rai's removal.

Rai’s family was in Congress, but he had started his political career in the BJP. He wore a vermilion tikka on his forehead and frequently visited temples. Gautam came from AAP via BSP and visited Sarnath during his trip to Varanasi.

Political experts believe the Congress high command erred by implementing organisational changes just ahead of the elections. Though Rahul Gandhi spoke to Rai before the announcement, Rai perhaps felt humiliated. Undoubtedly, he is a strongman with muscle and money power, but he kept waiting for Delhi to appoint his organisational team.

The soft-spoken, newly appointed chief, Mishra, also needs time to win the party's confidence and galvanise it for the polls. Though her father, Pramod Tiwari, can fix nuts and bolts with his long experience as a nine-time MLA, the time is too short to prepare the party to face a tough battle against the BJP by ensuring basic bonhomie among the cadres of the allies.