Saying no to southern hospitality

The downward spiral of India’s Grand Old Party, is an ongoing phenomenon that accelerated since the BJP-led NDA government assumed power in 2014. The party, currently in the midst of a presidential race, has been blamed for being unable to sever the umbilical cord tethering it to the Gandhis, owing to which several senior politicians, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Jayanthi Natarajan have walked out of the party.

The Congress holds an unimpressive clout in the Hindi-speaking belts of India. But, what is a cause for consternation is how the Congress has lost the plot in consolidating its power in South India. This is pertinent considering how the South is a region that has held on against the steamrolling of the BJP, which has so far been able to come into power only in Karnataka.

Analysts remark that the Congress has appeased the vote bank in the Hindi-speaking States of the nation, while altogether ignoring the South, which is a mainstay of regional heavyweight parties, where it maintains a purely transactional presence. The Congress high command is keen on an image makeover, with events like the Bharat Jodo Yatra, that commenced from Kanniyakumari in September, and will conclude in Srinagar. The point of origin of the Yatra might appear symbolic, as the Congress has had a long and illustrious list of leaders from the South, including the likes of C Rajagopalachari, K Kamaraj, PV Narasimha Rao and S Nijalingappa.

But the symbolism ends right there. Till date, no State in south India has had a Chief Minister hailing from the Congress. As of date, the Congress is in power in only two States - Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where the party enjoys the majority support. And in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Jharkhand, the Congress shares power with alliance partners such as the DMK, Janata Dal (United) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha respectively.

With the Congress falling out of favour in Kerala, the CPI (M) is enjoying its second term. The Congress had a pride of place in its erstwhile bastion, the undivided Andhra Pradesh. But, following the State’s split into AP and Telangana, the party was compelled to cede ground to the YSR Congress and TDP respectively. In 2009, the Congress had as many as 33 of the 42 Lok Sabha MPs from united AP, a number that has trickled down to zero, both in the assembly and the Lok Sabha. The situation is no different in TN, where the party maintains a business-like relationship with the Dravidian ruler — offering coveted ministries at the Centre to be traded for LS seats from the State.

In the 2019 elections, over half of Congress’s LS tally i.e. 26 out of 44 seats came from south India. But now, going by its waning fortunes, no party is keen on negotiating with the Congress on a seat sharing arrangement, especially when it is left with no trump cards up its sleeve. It’s a shame when one recalls how the late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi was instrumental in the formation of UPA 1 while YS Rajasekhara Reddy was critical to the foundation of UPA 2.

Even the presidential election in the Congress is being viewed as a foregone conclusion, with octogenarian Mallikarjun Kharge being fielded as the ‘establishment’s candidate’ while Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor being labelled as an elitist stand-in for an opponent. The fact that the Congress has failed to cultivate strong leaders in the South, barring a handful, will be a decisive factor in the party’s increasing alienation from the region.