After Losing Himachal, Tough For Congress to Bounce Back to Power

The indifference from the Congress high command in the Himachal elections made matters worse.

An ageing leader and no one else to rely on, what happens to the Congress in Himachal five years from now?

(Photo: The Quint)

Eighty-three-year-old Virbhadra Singh, who led Congress to defeat in these elections, is the only leader from his party to have a pan-Himachal appeal.

While the Himachali voter is used to alternating between the Congress and BJP since 1985 and the present loss of the Congress is in line with the trend, what happens five years from now?

It will be difficult for the party to make a comeback in Himachal.

There are three main reasons for this.

An Ageing Leader and No One Else to Rely On

While the current chief minister, popularly known as Rajaji, is ageing, there is no second-rung leadership in the state who he could pass the baton to. No faces of reliable young leaders were sprung by the Congress during this campaign, with everything falling on the shoulders of Virbhadra Singh.

Himachal doesn’t have an alternate Congress leader and the next time the state has to elect a government, Singh will be 88 years old.

Congress Avoided Ground Realities

Along with the absence of future leadership, the Congress also failed to address pressing concerns on the ground.

For example, employment is a major concern; universities are filled with students in the education hub of Solan, and the youth are crying for jobs. Even the fallout from the Gudiya rape case due to the botched-up police investigation has shown the Congress in a bad light.

Anti-incumbency was strong and the corruption charges against Singh weighed heavily. The Congress needed to come together to fight these charges strategically to overcome their impact.

Congress High Command’s Indifference and Factionalism

But what made matters worse was the lack of interest from the Congress high command in the Himachal elections.

When corruption charges were pressed against Singh, the Congress leadership chose to keep a safe distance from the chaos. They didn’t come to his rescue or defend him, which pointed towards issues in the party. To add to this, right before the elections, Singh threatened to boycott assembly elections if Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu wasn’t removed as the president of Himachal Congress.

Singh wanted a loyalist to hold the post so that those who support him within the Congress get tickets before the elections. This prolonged infighting within the Congress has kept them from being a strong force.

Vepa Rao, a Shimla-based political analyst, said it is very possible that after Congress MLAs win in their assemblies, they will resign to either join the BJP or form a separate party and support them in the assembly.

The massive factionalism in the Congress and the resignations of its leaders in Himachal – including Rural Development minister Anil Sharma, Chetan Parmar and Dinesh Chaudhary – to join the BJP point towards a weak Congress party.

These three factors make it clear that the Congress needs to reinvent itself. There is a pertinent need for reliable future leadership, ridding the party of its factionalism and a need to face ground realities head-on to come back to power and keep the trend of alternating parties alive in Himachal Pradesh.