Trouble for Congress mounts in Himachal Pradesh as prominent leaders exit

Last month, two Congress MLAs — Pawan Kajal and Lakhwinder Rana — quit the Congress and joined the BJP

CHANDIGARH

Ahead of the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly election, due later this year, the trouble for the Congress party, which aims to wrest power from the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), seem to be mounting with prominent leaders leaving the party, citing factionalism and disarray over party operations in the State. 

In the latest blow to the party’s electoral prospects, Harsh Mahajan, the party’s working president and a veteran leader, on Wednesday left the party to join the BJP, pointing out that the Congress’s State unit was riddled with infighting and groupism, which had left the party without almost any cadre. The youth was demoralised and disillusioned, with no direction at the State, district or constituency levels, he said.

Mr. Mahajan said that after the demise of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who carried the party single-handedly, the party had been reduced to shambles, with neither leadership nor credibility.

“A super jumbo Congress Committee of over 500 office bearers has been appointed — a sure sign of organisational weakness, with over half of the members being non-entities. The party will not be able to form the government, as it is heading toward further disaster... There is no organisational connection between the State and national levels of the party. A cadre-less party based on the whims and fancies of a few self-acclaimed leaders is untenable,” said Mr. Mahajan, a former State Minister.

The Congress has been battling to put its house in order as several senior leaders have quit the party in recent months.

In April, the Congress replaced then State unit president Kuldeep Singh Rathore under whose leadership the party had registered an emphatic win in the Assembly and Lok Sabha byelections in October 2021. A section of the party feels that this tinkering with the established unit, which had delivered victory in key elections was uncalled for, and its adverse consequences are now out in the open, which could cost the party heavily in the impending poll.