The only three states where the Congress is in power on its own are also proving to be major problem areas for the party. The state units in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are in turmoil as the tussle for power continues and the chief ministers are facing in-house challenges to their authority.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has found himself in an unenviable situation just months ahead of assembly polls with his feud with his bete noire, PCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu, escalating. While the central leadership of the party must have expected friction between the chief minister and Sidhu after the latter was appointed chief of the state unit a month back, the power tussle between the two has grown into a full blown warfare. The picture of collaboration that was conveyed when Sidhu called on Amarinder a week ago and the modalities of party-government coordination that were worked out proved to be illusory, with the tenuous peace shattered by the controversy over the allegedly anti-national and pro-Pakistan statements made by two of Sidhu's newly-appointed advisers.
Amarinder came down heavily on them for their remarks and the opposition BJP happily latched on to the issue. However, the Sidhu camp has hit back at the chief minister, with over 30 legislators, including four ministers, learnt to have resolved at a meeting on Tuesday that they would petition the party high-command against Amarinder and convey to the central leadership their lack of confidence in the chief minister fulfilling the promises the party had made in the previous assembly elections.
While the move appears to be aimed at keeping Amarinder on tenterhooks and has to do with the apprehensions of the ministers about whether they will continue to be in the cabinet when the council of ministers is revamped as also the feeling of anti-incumbency against the individual MLAs, there are concerns whether the internal fight in the party is giving its rivals a chance to recoup ahead of elections.
Meanwhile, much quieter than the over-the-top Amarinder-Sidhu battle, in Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is engaged in a tussle for power with his former friend and now rival T. S. Singh Deo. It is learnt that Singh Deo is insisting that a decision had been taken in 2018, when Baghel was anointed chief minister by the party leadership, that the two would share the chief minister's post and occupy it for two-and-a-half years each. Baghel has been chief minister for more than 30 months, and Singh Deo is keen that there be a change of guard now.
However, what is working for Baghel is the image that he has carved out for himself – a Rahul Gandhi loyalist who has tried to implement his pet project, the NYAY, in the state and a leader in the aggressive mould with gumption to take on the BJP. However, while the party high command is interested in continuing with Baghel, it will be a challenge for it to assuage the concerns of Singh Deo, who is currently one of the key ministers in Baghel's cabinet. The party would not want to alienate Singh Deo, a thorough organisation man.
There is also the case of Rajasthan, where a persistent war of words has been waged between the camps of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his staunch rival, former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot. The supporters of Pilot have been demanding that the state cabinet be expanded and political appointments be made, involving Pilot loyalists, so that there is a balance of power between the two sides.
Pilot and his supporters are getting restless as it has been over a year since a truce was called between them and the Gehlot camp, and the assurances given to them at that time are yet to be kept. However, despite repeated interventions of the party high command, Gehlot is learnt to be delaying the exercise of expanding his cabinet and making political appointments, citing the necessity to accommodate the independent MLAs supporting his government and the BSP legislators who had joined the Congress.
There is trouble in the Congress's oases of power, and not helping matters is the confusion at the central level, where a much-awaited reshuffle is yet to happen and the leadership questions remain unsettled.
