Party strategists have turned their attention (Photo: PTI)
Jagran Bureau, New Delhi. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh openly raised the issue of weakness of the organization in the working committee meeting. The high command and other senior Congressmen saw and understood it from their respective viewpoints. Some action-reaction took place and the matter ended. But, the Congress leadership was not at all ready to see that the mirror that Digvijay has tried to show is the real picture of the Congress across the country.
The party's strategists, including Rahul Gandhi, who have accused the Election Commission of bias, are completely blind to the political-strategic failure that in many states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, their state presidents have stood as commanders without the army. This is the condition of inactivity of the organization even though the Congress had named the year 2025 as the year of organization creation.
No executive in UP
First of all, let us talk about Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are to be held in the year 2027. BJP and SP are busy in their preparations, but there is a need to understand the extent of organizational preparation of Congress. After the crushing defeat in the 2022 assembly elections, Congress removed Ajay Kumar Lallu from the post of state president and made Dalit leader Brijlal Khabri, who came from BSP, the president, but could not become the state executive for almost a year.
He departed empty handed and in the year 2023, the command of the state organization was handed over to former MLA Ajay Rai. It is said that first of all they were made officials without their consent or consultation. Lok Sabha elections were held with the same team and in December 2024, National President Kharge dissolved all the units of the state. Since then, the state president is standing alone in UP, he was not even given a team.
Weak organization in Bihar also
Now if someone argues that the organization will be ready before the 2027 elections, then look at Bihar, where elections have already been held. Congress is alleging vote theft here too, but the reality of the organization is that Rajesh Ram was made the State Congress President in March, just before the Bihar Assembly elections. When Rajesh Ram took over the reins of the organisation, elections were looming and the party neither had a state executive nor a strong leadership structure in the districts.
The party was reduced to six seats in the elections. It has been more than nine months since Rajesh Ram was appointed, but the state team has not been formed yet. Before this, Dr. Akhilesh Prasad Singh and before him Dr. Madan Mohan Jha were state presidents for a long time, but even during their tenure, the Congress organization could not get a permanent structure. However, since 2015, Bihar Congress is running without a formal state executive.
Same condition of Himachal and Punjab
In Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh, the party high command had dissolved the State Congress Committee, District and Block Executives on November 6, 2024, but they have not been formed yet. Observers were appointed to form the executive, who submitted their report about six months ago. After that several rounds of meetings have been held in Delhi.
It is said that the process of constituting the executive was in the final stages, before that the high command had started the organization creation campaign in Himachal also. Meanwhile, new state president Vinay Kumar has been appointed. It is not certain when the organization will be ready. Similarly, in Punjab, Congress state president Amarinder Singh Raja Vading took charge in April 2022. At that time, eight officials were made with him, including an executive head, a general secretary, a treasurer and five deputy heads.
After all the changes and upheavals that have taken place since then, the present situation is that out of total nine, only five members including Pradhan are working in the State Congress. At the same time, in Madhya Pradesh, where Congress is considered comparatively strong, the state committee could be formed in October 2024, about 10 months after Jitu Patwari became the state president.
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