Why there is no end to Congress’ woes in Mumbai?

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year, several factions in Mumbai Congress had complained to the party leadership against Nirupam, who was the unit chief then, and sought his removal. Responding to their demands, the party replaced Nirupam with Milind Deora.

Barely a fortnight before the assembly elections in Maharashtra, the differences within the Mumbai unit of Congress are out in the open yet again with its former chief Sanjay Nirupam declaring he wouldn’t be campaigning for the party.

Voting for Maharashtra Assembly elections is to be held on October 21. (Arabinda Mahapatra/HT Photo)

Nirupam is unhappy with the party for not accepting his recommendation to give a ticket to a Congress worker.

“It seems Congress party doesn’t want my services anymore. I had recommended just one name in Mumbai for assembly election. Heard that even that has been rejected. As I had told the leadership earlier, in that case I will not participate in poll campaign (sic),” Nirupam had tweeted on Thursday.

He has blamed his rivals within the party for the same and even hinted at quitting if things remain the same.

While his detractors are trying to dismiss his outburst as a tactic to force the Congress, his aides say the leader is really upset with the party. In any case, Nirupam’s tweets indicate that things have not improved in Mumbai Congress yet. It continues to be in bad shape due to infighting and factionalism.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year, several factions in Mumbai Congress had complained to the party leadership against Nirupam, who was the unit chief then, and sought his removal. Responding to their demands, the party replaced Nirupam with Milind Deora.

The change at the helm could not save Mumbai Congress in the Lok Sabha elections and the party lost all five out of six city Lok Sabha seats it contested. Taking the responsibility for the same, Deora resigned from the post.

The party leadership appointed veteran leader Eknath Gaikwad in his place and was expecting all factions to work together. It seems things haven’t changed.

So what exactly is going wrong with Congress in Mumbai?

The party’s biggest problem in Mumbai is factionalism. Most senior leaders in Mumbai Congress do not see eye to eye and are not willing to work together even when the party is facing its worst-ever crisis. In several cases, personal egos and vested interests are put above the party’s interests. Everybody in the party knows this but the leadership has been unable to rein in the warring leaders and force them to work together.

The top brass of the party has also never given a free hand to any leader to handle the affairs in the city. It starts interfering in the functioning of the unit chief the moment rival factions start complaining. In this war of the faction, the organisation at the grassroots level has suffered. In fact, it doesn’t even exist in several parts of the city. The party has not cultivated any voter base.

Traditionally, the Shiv Sena largely had influence over Marathi voters while the Congress used to get the support of a large chunk of non-Marathi, minority and Dalit voters. In the past few years, the party’s support base has shrunk and taken over mostly by the BJP. No efforts have been made to win over the lost voters.

The leadership has not even bothered to groom new leaders after the demise of Murli Deora and Gurudas Kamath both of whom had handled the party affairs successfully for decades.

The state of the party can be gauged from the fact that it is not confident of winning even half a dozen seats out of 36 constituencies in Mumbai in the October 21 assembly elections.

If the crisis in its city unit is not addressed by the party, the Congress will slowly vanish from Mumbai—the city where it was founded in December 1885.