Unlike Congress, no fuss in other political parties over so-called elections

New Delhi: For right or wrong reasons, the grand old party of Indian politics is always in the news and the same cannot be said about other political parties.

Last month, three political parties re-elected their presidents and none of these could make any headlines but the developments related to the upcoming election to the Congress president’s post are in the news almost every day.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on September 10 re-elected Sharad Pawar its president for the eighth consecutive term. He along with Tariq Anwar (who is now back in the Congress) and the late PA Sangma had founded the NCP in 1999 after breaking away from the Congress.

Similarly, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on September 28 re-appointed Lalu Prasad its chief for a record 12th time since its formation in 1997.

And on September 29, the Samajwadi Party (SP) reinstalled Akhilesh Yadav as its president for a third term from 2017 onwards. Prior to him, his father Mulayam Singh Yadav had held the post since the inception of the party in 1992.

Apart from these, many other parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (Secular) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had re-elected their heads without any fuss.

Even the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to give another term to incumbent president JP Nadda whose first tenure comes to an end on January 20, 2023.

In contrast, the pre-election media fanfare in the Congress is unprecedented with every move of the two candidates – Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor -- contesting the party chief's post making juicy news stories. News organisations give a blow-by-blow account of their campaigns too.

Is it because the media is too obsessed with the country’s oldest political party? The Congress has been in the news for all wrong reasons since 2011 when it led the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and faced a series of allegations of corruption against it.

After the drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it was widely expected that the Congress would be relegated to the margins of India’s media landscape.

But that wasn’t meant to be. The grand old party managed to grab all the media attention due to internal squabbling and a series of electoral setbacks in states.

The situation improved briefly after the party’s poll victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh but again got hit by the debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. As of today, it rules only two states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Many young leaders who at one point of time were considered close to Rahul Gandhi have left the Congress. Take for example Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh, all of them are in the BJP now. A few other one-time Rahul Gandhi’s close ones such as Sushmita Deb is in the Trinamool Congress and Ashok Tanwar in the AAP. Another young gun, Sachin Pilot, almost brought down own government in Rajasthan in July 2020. Though he has so far stayed put in the Congress, young lawyer Jaiveer Shergill too has jumped ship.

Some veterans such as Captain Amarinder Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad too have quit the grand old party. A rebel group, known as G-23, also surfaced in between to rock the Congress and give the BJP a handle to attack the Congress.

Then much time was lost in persuading Rahul Gandhi to return as the Congress president and when he insisted that a non-Gandhi would take over the party, the focus shifted to Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

The refusal of Gehlot’s loyalists to attend the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on September 29 virtually brought the party high command to its knees.

The incident forced the leadership to look for other options as the Congress president. The names of Kamal Nath, Mukul Wasnik and Kharge were discussed. Eventually, Kharge became the unofficial official candidate of the leadership while Tharoor emerged as his challenger.

Their campaign trail along with some pictures from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra ensures that the media focus stays on the Congress.