The Congress party has lost ground in Telugu states in recent years, particularly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. However, it is not impossible for the party to retrieve its lost ground. Let’s wait and see the political miracles!
To regain its position, the Congress party needs to understand the reasons behind its decline and address the issues that led to its decline. Some of the factors that contributed to its decline include the emergence of regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively, internal dissensions and lack of strong leadership at the state level, and failure to connect with the aspirations of the electorate.
To overcome these challenges, the Congress party needs to focus on building strong leadership at the state level, engaging with the people and addressing their issues, and forming alliances with other like-minded parties. The party also needs to come up with a clear and comprehensive agenda that resonates with the people’s aspirations and provides a viable alternative to the ruling parties.
While it may be challenging, it is not impossible for the Congress party to regain its lost ground in Telugu states. The party needs to work on building its organizational structure, addressing issues that led to its decline, and forming alliances to create a formidable force.
For any party to be successful, it is essential to adapt to the fast-changing political situations. Old ways of central domination over the state units won’t work unless the decisions are pragmatic and based on ground realities. The grand old party is lacking in this aspect; for, its decisions are advice-based and most of the time dominated by those who are closer to the high command.
It seems that the Congress party is moving heaven and earth to retrieve the political ground it had lost after enjoying it unopposed for decades together in the combined Andhra Pradesh. Since the division of the state into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the fate of the Congress party has become topsy-turvy.
The Congress had suffered a humiliating defeat in Andhra Pradesh for dividing the state and its fate in Telangana too was no different. The party, despite granting Telangana, suffered immensely at the hands of TRS (now BRS). For the Congress, it has been a political nightmare in both the states for the past nine years. Although the party’s high command has made all-out efforts to rejuvenate the organisational unit, it appears that it would be a herculean task, given the fast-changing political scenario in the Telugu states and the strong penetration of the ruling parties.
It is a fact that wounds of division are still fresh in the minds of the Andhra people and there won’t be any chance for the Congress to come out with flying colours politically there. And if we take into consideration the party’s strength in Telangana, though it appears to have improved a lot in the recent past with the arrival of the top leaders, it still needs a lot of refabrication of the party.
For any party to be successful, it is essential to adapt to the fast-changing political situations. Old ways of central domination over the state units won’t work unless the decisions are pragmatic and based on ground realities. The grand old party is lacking in this aspect; for, its decisions are advice-based and most of the time dominated by those who are closer to the high command. After the 2014 elections, the Congress party lost a lot of its political ground and as a result, it was shunted out from most of the states it had ruled for decades. Now things have come to such a pass that it has to struggle a lot to retain a single state.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s nationwide Bharat Jodo Padayatra might have given the party some fillip but to sustain it the party needs concerted efforts not only in Telugu states but in all the states that are going to polls in the coming months. After dominating the north, the BJP is casting its eyes on the south where once dominating political force Congress is not able to have a facelift. Given the impenetrability of BRS in Telangana and dominating parties in Andhra Pradesh, the chance for Congress to have a semblance of presence is so bleak that it must move heaven and earth to penetrate there.
Those were the days when sentiment lured and mesmerized people toward one party or the other. Now politics will have to be practical and unless words and deeds meet, no party will have space to sustain itself, not to think of even survival. Then charisma used to fetch votes but now not it is the ability to meet aspirations of people that matters. No amount of individual attraction will get a political advantage unless the ideology of the party has the acceptability of the people.
As the exit polls of the Karnataka Assembly elections predict an edge for the Congress, it means that the party is still in the reckoning. If the exit poll results come true, the Congress will have to make some more sustained efforts to take the party to the doorstep of the people so that it can have a chance to regain its past glory, but the glory won’t come just by the glorification of the leaders but by work and workable strategies. #hydnews #khabarlive
