As Maharashtra Congress Struggles, a Gandhi Returns to Nandurbar After 14 Years

With a reach out to Adivasis of Nandurbar, Rahul Gandhi began the last leg of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Maharashtra.

"The word 'Adivasi' means 'original owners of the country'. When nobody else was here, the Adivasis were here. The owners of India's wealth – jal (water), jungle (forest), zameen (land) – are Adivasis," said Rahul Gandhi in Nandurbar on Tuesday, 12 March, as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered Maharashtra for its last leg.

With a packed venue at CB Maidan, Rahul's arrival ended the 14-year-long 'vanvaas' of the Gandhi family, many said, with Sonia Gandhi being the last member of the family to visit the constituency in 2010.

For decades, the Gandhi family and the Congress party were perceived to have a unique political affiliation to Nandurbar, with the party never having lost the constituency even once until 2014.

Indira Gandhi was known to launch her election campaigns in Nandurbar. Sonia Gandhi held her first public meeting there before entering active politics. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, along with Sonia, even launched the Aadhaar scheme in Nandurbar with 10 villagers from Tembhali becoming the first Aadhaar cardholders in the country.

Despite the deep-rooted political hold for six decades, the Congress failing to get the reins to the region back from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2014 is indicative of the party's state in Maharashtra.

Bordering both Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Nandurbar is a Adivasi-dominated region with a significant chunk of Maratha population. Clearly, the Yatra entering the state from Nandurbar was a calculated move for the caste census-centric politics of the Congress which was evident in Rahul's address on Tuesday.

However, even as Rahul's march enters its last leg with respect to Maharashtra, the party's foundation remains on shaky grounds in the state that has the second-highest number of Lok Sabha seats. The Congress had bagged just one seat from Maharashtra in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Nandurbar: Congress' Steepest Fall From Glory

Rahul's address in Nandurbar had an obvious focus – Adivasi and tribal voters of the region. For the Nandurbar stretch, the Congress even renamed the march to 'Bharat Jodo Adivasi Nyay Yatra'.

The event began with the celebration of Holi, following which Rahul addressed the gathering with promises of giving back the Adivasis the "rights that were snatched from them."

"You comprise of 8 percent of India's population but do you get that much representation?" Rahul asked, followed by the usual tirade of how the BJP is allegedly enabling business tycoon Gautam Adani to infringe upon the rights of the poor and the Adivasis.

A clear pitch for caste census followed. "If your population is 8%, your representation should be 8% too," he said.

He further made promises to strengthen the Forest Act, settle claims on Adivasi lands within one year, put all regions with over 50 percent Adivasi population under the Sixth Schedule, and legal guarantee for forest produce.

Since 1981, late Congress leader and former Union Minister Manikrao Gavit won every consecutive election till he was defeated in the Modi wave in 2014 by Heena Gavit, who has been holding and strengthening the fort for the BJP ever since.

The BJP, which was at the third spot in Nandurbar with about 25 percent votes in 2009, doubled its share to about 50 percent by 2019. The Congress, meanwhile, has maintained its vote share at a little above 42 percent in both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Out of the six Assembly seats, only two are now with the Congress while three are occupied by the BJP and one by an independent MLA.

Many blame the lack of the party central leadership's interest in the past decade to revive the Congress' fortunes in the region.

Despite efforts by state chief Nana Patole to iron out differences, the local Congress unit has often reported differences over the leadership of local MLA KC Padvi, reports suggested. Moreover, keeping the post of Congress district unit chief vacant for the past few months hasn't helped.

Rahul To Visit Six More Districts: How Does the Congress Fare?

Over the next few days, Rahul's yatra will pass through Dhule, Malegaon, Nashik, Palghar, and Thane, and will finally conclude in Mumbai with a mega INDIA bloc rally planned at Shivaji Park on 17 March.

While Dhule flip-flopped between the Congress and the BJP till 2004, the party has not been able to win it back from the BJP for 15 years now. Nashik has been a Shiv Sena stronghold since 2014. The Congress has never won Palghar since the constituency was carved out in 2008.

Thane has traditionally been a BJP-Shiv Sena fortress with the Congress having bagged it once in 1984 and the Nationalist Congress Party (united) having won once in 2009.

While the INDIA bloc's show of unity aka Maha Vikas Aghadi's show of strength has been planned in the capital of Mumbai, the local party unit there remains more divided than ever.

The exodus in Maharashtra Congress began in Mumbai when Milind Deora jumped ship to the Shiv Sena (Shine) in January, followed by former Minister of State and three-time MLA Baba Siddique.

Differences between Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad and senior leaders like Sanjay Nirupam and Bhai Jagtap are publicly known. Following former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's jump to the BJP last month, Jagtap said that party workers in the Mumbai unit are being treated like 'servants'.

Out of the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, the Congress holds none. Out of the 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai, the party had won four in 2019 while the NCP (united) had bagged one.

Congress' Responsibility Greatest as Biggest Opposition Party in the State

Other than conflicts within local party units, the state-level leadership, too, remains embattled.

Patole's leadership as the state party chief has been riddled with differences with senior party leaders. In February 2023, Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat quit his post over distribution of tickets for MLC elections.

Thorat even shot a letter to party president Mallikarjun Kharge, stating that it was "impossible" to work with Patole. Several party units across the state, too, have written to the Congress central leadership regarding Patole's 'unilateral' style of working on several occasions.

Considered impenetrable till January, three high-profile exits in three months with Deora, Siddique, and Chavan not only rocked the party but also brought Patole's leadership under scanner.

The sole Lok Sabha seat of Chandrapur that the party won is now vacant with MP Suresh Dhanorkar's demise in May 2023. For Chandrapur, too, the race for candidature is getting uglier by the day with Dhanorkar's wife, MLA Pratibha Dhanorkar and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar's daughter Shivani both both openly lobbying for a ticket.

The vote share of the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections was at an average of 16 percent.

However, the fact remains that the Congress is still the largest Opposition party in the state, following vertical splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP. While the majority factions joined the NDA, leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar now depend on the Congress for organisational and logistical support with elections upon them.

With seat-sharing talks of the MVA still stuck, the Congress is looking to contest between 16-18 seats, sources said.

As no elections have been held so far to gauge which faction's vote is getting transferred to whom, the Congress' 2024 battle will not just decide the fate of the MVA but also the fate of its own existence in Maharashtra.