Why Rahul Gandhi will need to do a lot more than visit Mumbai to revive the Congress in the city

The stated objective of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s two-day visit to Mumbai, spanning January 15 and 16, was to energise the party’s cadre for the all-important battle that lies ahead – the election to the city’s Rs 40,000 crore worth civic corporation scheduled for next January.

By the time Gandhi wrapped up his tour and boarded the flight back to Delhi, he must have realised that it would take a lot more than a structured visit to even dream of returning to power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

A house divided

To say that the Congress in Mumbai is deeply divided and fissured would be an under-statement. The city unit has long ceased to function as a cohesive political force, irrespective of the issues facing the metropolis and the massive challenge from the opposition parties. On the eve of Gandhi’s arrival in the city, a full-blown fight erupted in the party’s headquarters between two rival factions over his itinerary.

It is no secret that the incumbent city president Sanjay Nirupam, who crossed over from the Shiv Sena 10 years ago, is at loggerheads with party leaders such as former member of Parliament and AIl India Congress Committee general secretary Gurudas Kamat, former state minister Naseem Khan and former city president Kripashankar Singh. Nirupam and Kamat held a lunch and dinner respectively earlier this week to which they did not even invite one another. Kamat and Singh helmed the Congress in Mumbai earlier, to no great achievements. The inter-personal battles between Singh and Khan during the 2014 general and Assembly elections made them look like they were from rival parties.

From winning five of the six Lok Sabha seats in the city in the 2004 general election, and all six with its ally the Nationalist Congress Party in 2009, the Congress could not retain a single seat in 2014. Even Nirupam and Milind Deora, a minister in Dr Manmohan Singh’s union cabinet, lost their seats. Party leaders attributed the loss to the frenzied Modi-wave that had gripped the country then. While the hysterical support to Narendra Modi was indeed a reason, it allowed party leaders to gloss over the problems within.

Gandhi could not but be aware of how severely fractured the party is. He referred to it in his address to party workers in suburban Malad on January 15, the day of Makar Sankranti, when he used the day’s traditional salutation “Til gul gheya, god god bola (accept the sweet of sesame and jaggery, speak just as sweet) as a message to the warring leaders. Later, he told them that while arguments and democracy were acceptable in the party, he would have to step in if things got too far.

His authority may well be needed to have the party function as a unit in the next 12 months but it is anybody’s guess if the warring factional leaders, each an old-style Congress satrap in his own right, will yield his political space and power to a rival. Gandhi came across more of his own man, more decisive and purposeful, more willing to engage with issues and people, during this visit than his previous one before the 2014 general election. He confidently took on Prime Minister Modi on the Swachh Bharat campaign, the smart cities programme when he questioned the sagacity of allocating Rs 100 crore to Mumbai whose civic body is worth Rs 40,000 crore, and held forth on the Goods and Services Tax and the Pathankot terror attack during an interaction with the media.

The Shiv Sainik as Congressman

While all leaders tailed behind him and raised their hands together for photos, the camaraderie was no more than a photo-op. The warring leaders are already upset that Gandhi easily accepted Nirupam’s regret over the article in the party’s mouthpiece last month which criticised Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s leadership and party president Sonia Gandhi’s family origins. In their view, the blunder made under Nirupam’s watch was reason enough for his ouster. He was served a show-cause notice for it but Gandhi dismissed the notice as mere procedure.

In Nirupam, Gandhi may have found an enthusiastic and belligerent leader to rouse the party that went into a slumber under his predecessor Prof Janardan Chandurkar. But his past continues to haunt Nirupam: his career in the Shiv Sena when he displayed the illiberalism of that party, his acidic references to the late Sunil Dutt who was an asset to the Congress, his advocacy of the Biharis and Uttar Bharatiyas in Mumbai, his feuds and sexist remarks about Smriti Irani and so on.

Nirupam, according to a veteran leader, has the ideas, stamina and resources required to take on the Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party in the fight for the BMC but his no-nonsense style of functioning has alienated others and made him a target for disgruntled older leaders. Also, there is the old Congress’ crab mentality: if Nirupam succeeds in wresting the civic body back after two decades, it would show up the inadequacies of past leaders.

The factionalism is not new. The late Murli Deora, who helmed the party in the city for a record 22 years from 1980-81, and other leaders such as Kamat hardly saw eye to eye on issues. Deora’s equation with the Gandhis, which went all the way back to the late Indira Gandhi, kept other aspirants and discontented leaders in their place. But beneath the calm surface, factionalism flourished. As a result, the Congress ceded political and civic space to the Shiv Sena, BJP and Dalit parties. It suffered also for not identifying with or strongly taking up issues related to the average Mumbaikar during these years.

To regain lost glory in Mumbai, where the Indian National Congress was formed in December 1885, the party would need all its leaders to at least evolve a common minimum understanding before they can take on the opposition. Gandhi has preferred Nirupam to lead the battle. This means Gandhi has his task cut out for the next few months, especially as the Shiv Sena and BJP too are sharpening their own strategies for the civic election.