The big churn: Can Congress reform itself while ensuring opposition unity against BJP?

The churn has begun. Post Karnataka, message seems to have gone down loud and clear among the rank and file of Congress that barring few states where they are directly pitched against BJP, the grand-old-party will have to ally i.e share seats with regional parties. Sources in the Congress confirmed that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is working on the plan of 'one constituency one candidate'. The idea is to have a single candidate from the Opposition against BJP. The urgency stems from the fact that Congress feels that if BJP is not stopped in 2019, it may not find itself in a fighting position later. Though many regional parties want Congress to play a subservient role. It will be a tough decision for Congress in many states like Uttar Pradesh where it is not a player or is in a very weak position. Nonetheless, Congress will cooperate with regional partners and ensure that there is a united front. Sonia Gandhi is convinced that this formula will work and she has taken charge of this inter party initiative. But it will also mean that Congress will have to deal with Mayawati who tied up with JD(S) in Karnataka and has declared support for Chautalas for Haryana assembly elections.

The challenge for the Congress would be to retain primal position within the Opposition which is being challenged by TMC. Sources in Congress said that it seems that regional parties like TRS are playing the role of B team of BJP but they have decided not to trade charges so that opposition unity remains unaffected. 

Many senior leaders have also suggested drastic change in operations of Congress. Sources said that many of them believe Congress will have to turn into a cadre based party tuned towards booth management where it can convert votes into seats. Many understand that the earlier tradition of parcelling out the campaign of the party to individual leaders cannot function against Modi-Shah combine. It has been seen that when the leaders defect, the workers too defect with them leaving the party in a lurch. A senior source said that party has an ideology but it needs to transform itself at the booth level. This idea comes in the wake of phenomenal success of panna  pramukhs of BJP who ensures that all committed voters of the party come out to vote.

Many insiders feel that in modern era there cannot be any sense of entitlement and wholesale changes are needed. Sources said that party ought to take decision faster and needs to be extremely aggressive on issues concerning BJP. The lack of quick decision making undid Goa and Manipur mandate for Congress Party. As of now Congress is giving charge to younger leadership in the state sand ensuring that a state in-charge should only be focused on one state rather than 2 or 3 which was the case in the past.  Despite being in strong position in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Congress cannot discount the might of Modi and Shah combine which have firmly positioned the guns on Gandhis.