Battlefield 2024: Why Mamata Banerjee is pushing for ‘Gandhi-mukt’ Congress

It’s not difficult to understand why Mamata Banerjee is going after Rahul Gandhi with the ferocity she usually reserves for Narendra Modi. No challenge to Modi in 2024 has even a remote chance of success as long as the Gandhi-led Congress remains a distraction on the electoral battlefield.

It’s no secret that Modi’s strategists consider Rahul Gandhi their biggest political asset. His “Pappu” image brings Modi’s 56-inch chest into sharp relief and boosts the BJP’s “there is no alternative” narrative. Not only has Rahul Gandhi steered the Congress to its nadir ever since Modi appeared on the political landscape, virtually every time the two parties have gone head-to-head in an election, especially in a national poll, the BJP has emerged the winner.

To buttress the point, here’s an interesting factoid from the 2019 parliamentary election. Of the 186 Lok Sabha seats in which the Congress was the main challenger to the BJP, it won only 15 seats. The BJP’s strike rate in these seats was 92 percent.

There are just two years left for the next general election and anti-BJP forces are running out of patience with Rahul Gandhi’s desultory politics which don’t seem to make even the smallest dent in Modi’s Teflon-coated armour. He may raise the right issues and flood social media with scathing tweets but on the ground, he and his party seem to make little impact.

This is where Mamata Banerjee comes in. Riding high after crushing the BJP with a stunning victory in the West Bengal Assembly polls earlier this year, she has decided to step in and fill the breach that the Gandhi Congress should have been trying to plug in preparation for 2024. But to be successful, she has to expand her footprint beyond West Bengal and morph the Trinamool Congress into a national party.

Neither Mamata Banerjee nor her backroom strategy team headed by poll tactician Prashant Kishor, who comes with a formidable reputation for helping his clients to win an election, are naive enough to believe that a national party capable of taking on the BJP juggernaut can be built in just two years.

So they have devised a shortcut: Take over the Congress which already has a nationwide presence and even at its lowest point after a second successive annihilation by the BJP in 2019, managed to garner a vote share of 20 percent.

Yes, contrary to popular perception that she is aiding the BJP in realising its stated ambition of a Congress-mukt Bharat, Mamata Banerjee hopes to create a Gandhi-mukt Congress by marginalising the family, splitting the party a la Indira Gandhi in 1969, taking over as large a chunk as will heed her call and refashioning it into the “real, back-to-its-roots” Congress which will be the fulcrum of an anti-Modi front of opposition parties in 2024.

Her critics have dismissed her plans as a pipe-dream. Indeed, it is entirely possible that she is over-reaching herself. Except that the Congress has never looked as ripe for a takeover as it does today. Ten years of losing elections, a crippling leadership crisis, a decaying organisation and ideological confusion have left the party brittle and unstable. Its ranks are depleting rapidly with high-profile leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and MLAs across the country jumping ship to head for the BJP. Some have even joined Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress like in Meghalaya where 12 of the Congress’ 17 MLAs switched allegiance recently.

The unrest in the Congress exploded in a stormy Working Committee meeting last year after a group of 23 senior leaders wrote to Sonia Gandhi demanding an immediate course correction. The sharpest barb in the letter was meant for Rahul Gandhi when the writers emphasised the need for a “full-time and effective” leadership which is both “visible” and “active”. There couldn’t have been a more stinging indictment of the Gandhi scion’s now-you-see-him, now-you-don’t style of leadership.

Mamata Banerjee is moving rapidly with her eye firmly fixed on her target. Strangely, despite all the hype around her, a significant meeting of the Trinamool Congress national executive in Kolkata recently was largely ignored by the national media, although there was an extensive briefing by TMC spokesperson Derek O’Brien and recently inducted former Janata Dal (United) MP Pavan Varma later.

The meeting is important because it marks the first step in the shaping of Mamata Banerjee’s 2024 strategy. The decisions taken include changing the name of the party by dropping the West Bengal-centric Trinamool but retaining Congress and revamping the constitution to give the new party a national look while reaffirming its commitment to the ideals of the Congress of the freedom movement. “This will be the real Congress,” said Varma.

Significantly, Mamata Banerjee-authorised TMC leaders and of course Kishor are in touch with members of the G-23, unhappy Congress leaders across the country and leaders of Opposition parties that are likely to join the front that’s in the making to challenge Modi and the BJP in 2024. The response is believed to be positive and enthusiastic with many Congress leaders expressing interest in the project to refashion the grand old party without the Gandhis.

According to those familiar with Mamata Banerjee’s plans, her new party will be in place before the upcoming round of five Assembly polls. The reason for the haste is that 2024 is not far and more importantly, should the Congress lose all five states, Mamata Banerjee can hope to make a run on the party.

At a time when the country is desperately crying for an Opposition, Mamata Banerjee is the only political leader making a visible effort to fill the vacuum. She may or may not succeed. We will know in 2024. But at least she dares to dream big.

The writer is a veteran journalist and political commentator. Views expressed are personal.

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