Some call it a newfound sense of humility. The Congress leadership would prefer the word magnanimity. Shorn of the adjectives and the smart-speak, political pundits label it a reality check. But the Congress is going to struggle to execute the larger plan of playing second fiddle to regional parties as the rank and file are yet to get in sync with this thought process. The ruckus over ceding a Rajya Sabha seat to the K M Mani-led Kerala Congress points to the intense pain it is causing to many in the Congress who are not used to any perch except on the high horse.
Sure, the Rajya Sabha seat may have been used as a tool to settle scores among the Congress party factions. For a leadership that has for years thrived on one-upmanship, the Rajya Sabha seat too may have become another pawn in that game. By extension of the same argument, this is also being seen as a swipe by the elders at the youth brigade that had been asking the former to make way for them. It’s also a fact that there was more than magnanimity at work here while ceding the Rajya Sabha seat to a smaller ally. And, it has not helped this has turned out to be a zero-sum game for quite a few, including veteran Parliamentarian P J Kurien whose seat was at stake here.
But at the macro and national level, the message that is going out with clarity from Kerala is that the Congress continues to be reluctant when it comes to giving its allies any elbow room whatsoever. Worryingly, the sabre-rattling by some of the Congress leaders has come at a time when the party is alarmingly weak and is in no position to browbeat its allies. This is quite in contrast to its bête noire, the CPM, which is wooing allies from a position of strength. For the likes of the JD(S), BSP, Samajwadi Party, TDP and Trinamool Congress, which are looking to join hands with the Congress to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the belligerence against yielding room to a small ally in Kerala will not go unnoticed.
