Rahul's bid to end centralised power structure has faced resistance from the party's old guard, especially in the face of a series of losses in regional elections and the crucial 2019 general elections
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has not been able to keep his word to decentralise power in the grand old party. It is now apparent that more and more power is getting concentrated in his office – right from appointment of district level leaders to giving tickets. Rahul's bid to end centralised power structure has faced resistance from the party's old guard, especially in the face of a series of losses in regional elections and the crucial 2019 general elections.
In one of meetings of the coordination committees held on January 2, it was decided to give more role to Gandhi's office akin to what his mother at 10 Janpath used to wield. Since he took over as general secretary, Gandhi had tried to inculcate a culture where chief of frontal organisations were encouraged to take decisions without taking any queue from the high command. When he took over as party chief last year, he had advised state unit chief not to rush to New Delhi or to his office frequently for every decision.
In 2014, Gandhi had introduced a radically different method of candidate selection. "Instead of aspirants spending precious time running around Lutyens Delhi trying to impress influential High Command leaders, they now had to seek the support of the party's local base," said a party leader.
The strategy meeting attended by the party's general secretaries, secretaries, and in-charges felt it was necessary for Gandhi to be more "vibrant".
Sources said senior party leader Ahmed Patel took state party leaders to task for adopting "one-line resolutions" authorising high command to decide on appointments of legislative party chiefs. He contended that it divests the leaders of accountability, and goes against Gandhi's intention of divesting power from the centre and making it more democratic. "The state leadership want more access to Gandhi, but don't want to be held accountable for decisions," said an AICC in-charge who was present at the meeting.
The idea, said another source, was to ensure more access and decision making to Gandhi. "Initially, his office was inaccessible. It took months for appointments. It is more open to state leaders like us now, but decisions take a while to pass if he is on tour," said a state leader.
Decisions taken by the general secretaries, in-charges and secretaries are crucial in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the same meeting, the central leadership of the core committee asked the state's party presidents to start the process of looking for winnable candidates in their constituencies, and submit a list of names by January 30.
While traditionally Congress has been a centralised party, Gandhi had tried to decentralise it by bringing in people from the civil society into the party fold, by hiring private election consultants, and by encouraging more state leadership in decision-making.
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