Congress rejig sets new norm: 'Neglected' loyalists rewarded, seniority not a shield

As Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge reassigned the responsibility of six states to new in-charges on September 5, there were signs that Rahul Gandhi’s talk of rewarding organisational loyalty and giving greater representation to leaders from socially backward communities was finally being put in action.

Reward for loyalists

Earlier this year, the party elevated Prakash Joshi and Sanjay Dutt, both low-profile leaders who spent years languishing as All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries, as in-charges for Bengal and Haryana, respectively. With the latest reshuffle, the Congress high command signalled that such promotions may now be the norm rather than an exception for leaders who have spent years in service to the party only to be bypassed for critical assignments.

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Three of the six new in-charges appointed by Kharge – tribal leader Sukhdeo Bhagat for Chhattisgarh, backward caste leader PV Mohan for Andhra Pradesh and Dalit leader Sirivella Prasad for Maharashtra – have been drawn from the party’s secretarial pool.

That each of them represents caste groups that are not just central to Rahul’s social justice pitch but also constitute a sizeable chunk of the electorate in states they have been assigned to shows that the high command has put in practice the politics it seeks to preach.

‘Neglected’ leaders to get their due

Congress insiders say it is at Rahul’s behest that Kharge and party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal have turned their gaze at the “vast but neglected pool of AICC secretaries” to identify “leaders committed to the organisation and ideology” for critical intra-party assignments.

“We have nearly five dozen AICC secretaries. Many of them have been working for the party tirelessly for years and they have worked in various states under different in-charges; their commitment is beyond question but they are routinely ignored for promotion because some sulking leader has to be appeased with a post or some senior leader is unwilling to make way for others even if he (or she) is unable to perform their assigned task,” said an AICC secretary and multiple-term MLA, while claiming that Rahul “wants this practice to change now”.

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Another party leader pointed out that Rahul was now ensuring that the oft-overlooked AICC secretaries get a chance at upward mobility not just within the organisation but also in the electoral arena. “There is a conscious effort to promote leaders from this rung… Christopher Tilak has been working as AICC secretary for several years but many seniors within the organisation, especially from the Hindi-speaking states barely knew him until earlier this year when Rahul chose him for a Rajya Sabha berth from Tamil Nadu. Pranav Jha has been AICC secretary for over a decade; he was given a Rajya Sabha ticket in Jharkhand but unfortunately lost due to cross-voting,” this leader said.

Pitch to put talent to use

Congress sources said that there was now a “regular assessment of the performance of AICC secretaries monitored personally by Rahul”.

“I think Rahul sees the AICC secretaries as a reservoir of talent that the party hasn’t been putting to good use. In a way it is like Rahul’s emphasis on giving DCC (District Congress Committee) chiefs more importance than before. DCC chiefs at the state level and AICC secretaries at the central level are, in a way, the lowest rung of the party hierarchy; they are young, hard-working and eager to prove themselves in whatever role they are assigned because they know if they do well, they will be in line for party tickets or higher posts… Rahul sees this as an opportunity for infusing our organisation with more energy,” said a leader elevated as state in-charge after previously serving as an AICC secretary and office-bearer with both the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).

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Sources say more secretaries are likely to be inducted soon. A leader privy to the process told The Federal that Rahul is meeting prospective candidates from various states, including some currently engaged in different departments of the party, serving or former legislators, and those previously active in the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and even the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Seniority no longer a shield

The new praxis, of course, doesn’t signal a complete shift in reliance from the party’s experienced seniors to relatively younger leaders. What the reshuffle does signal, though, is that a leader’s performance in the assigned office is now under greater scrutiny. While sycophancy for the Nehru-Gandhi family may still offer protection against unceremonious departure from office, it is, even when coupled with seniority, not a shield against accountability.

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This is best illustrated in former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and OBC leader Bhupesh Baghel’s unexpected reassignment from the party’s Punjab desk to Assam and the high command’s decision to divest party veteran and Dalit leader Mukul Wasnik from his charge of Gujarat whilst retaining him as a general secretary without any assigned role.

Wasnik example in Gujarat

The charge for Gujarat has been assigned to Randeep Surjewala, who retains additional responsibility for Karnataka. Sources said Gujarat Congress leaders had repeatedly complained about Wasnik’s lack of interest in the party’s affairs in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, which is due for polls at the end of next year.

The Congress has been on a steady electoral tailspin in Gujarat, after a short-lived revival a decade ago. Despite Rahul boastfully claiming in Lok Sabha shortly after the 2024 Lok Sabha poll results that the Congress will defeat the BJP in Gujarat in the 2027 polls, the party has continued to cede ground to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) while the BJP, in power since 1995, has shown no sign of weakening.

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As such, the high command and the party’s Gujarat unit shared the view that the state needed a more “proactive” leader than Wasnik. With Surjewala’s stock having gone up after he, as Karnataka in-charge, ensured a somewhat bloodless transfer of power from Siddaramaiah to DK Shivakumar, Kharge and Rahul seem to have placed a gamble on him to set the party’s affairs in order in Gujarat.

Punjab, Assam mathematics

As for Baghel, over the last few months, the party’s Punjab unit hurtled from one crisis to another under his watch – and, at times, with his complicity. With elections due in Punjab early next year and the party fancying a shot at victory, the leadership has assigned the state’s charge to Sachin Pilot.

As the new general secretary in-charge of Assam, Baghel replaces Jitendra Singh, a member of the erstwhile Alwar royal family and a close confidante of Rahul. Over the past decade, with Rahul’s unwavering patronage, Singh had been given multiple chances to prove his political worth but failed each time with a bigger thud, first in Assam, then in Madhya Pradesh and, most recently, in Assam, where the party was reduced to 19 MLAs on his watch after the Assembly polls earlier this year.

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Though after the Assam setback, Singh finally tendered his resignation as general secretary, the leadership wavered for months in accepting it, allowing speculation that he might simply be reassigned to a different role, as he had been previously after every new failure. That was not to be.