Infighting in Mumbai Congress: A recipe for electoral disaster

Those who have followed or covered the Congress party for years know that the truism – the party is its own worst enemy – is true. It was on display this week as two powerful men from the party’s Mumbai unit went head-to-head. At stake are the six Lok Sabha (LS) seats for which voting is only a couple of months away and the 36 Assembly seats in the city for which polling will happen later this year.

Milind Deora, former MP from Mumbai South and minister in the erstwhile UPA government, vented out his frustration – and that of several others in the party – when he uncharacteristically tweeted on Tuesday: “The Mumbai Congress cannot become a cricket pitch for sectarian politics with leaders pitted against one other. I’m disappointed with what is happening…Congress is leading a powerful, united campaign across India. Infighting cannot and should not be allowed to threaten our base in Mumbai. I appeal to all Congress leaders in Mumbai to unite as a team”.

Deora did not mention anyone, but the reference could not have been to anyone other than Sanjay Nirupam, former MP and the current chief of the party’s Mumbai unit. It was the birthday eve gift Nirupam would have liked to do without, but there it was. The internal feud, which saw sparks fly at a high-level meeting last week, was out in the open. It is not a clash of personalities, nor is the battle purely personal. The matter now, typically, will be addressed in Delhi.

That Nirupam has alienated most leaders in the last four years since he was appointed as the Mumbai unit chief is no secret. In fact, the late Gurudas Kamat, former MP and city chief, had lamented about Nirupam’s “arbitrary style of functioning”. Kamat and Deora – especially his father the late Murli Deora – were not on the best of terms but united in their opinion that Nirupam, who began his political career with the Shiv Sena, was divisive.

Nirupam’s reign, they believe, left two key groups estranged from the party: first, a large section of Mumbai’s cosmopolitan voters with his unabashed advocacy of North Indians, and second, loyal and veteran Congress workers. Nirupam rebutted that he attempted to work with the old guard and accommodated every faction, but he has to depend on people he can trust to move programmes ahead. The crux is that Congress has area chieftains in Mumbai, not a pan-city leader.

In 2009, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party had won all six LS seats (5 and 1 respectively), mainly as a result of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena splitting the Shiv Sena-BJP’s vote. Five years later, during the height of the “Modi wave”, it drew a blank. During the Assembly election in October 2014, it won a measly five out of 36 seats. In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election in February 2017, the Congress won only 31 of 227 seats. Its vote shares have been consistently declining.

The buzz is that if the Sena and BJP work unitedly in the coming weeks, the Congress may not win more than one or two LS seats. But the reason for the battle over Mumbai Congress is really to jockey into position for the Assembly election later. Deora would like himself or his trusted lieutenant to call the shots on ticket distribution, strategy and campaign. Kamat’s loyalists know this is their best chance to not be forgotten. In addition, former city unit chief Kripa Shankar Singh is aiming for rehabilitation.

Nirupam has, indeed, made the party visible on the ground, taken up issues which resonate with people, taken on powerful entities such as power utilities over inflated bills, issued statements, organised neighbourhood programmes, and been active on social media. But by design or default, he is most identified with North Indians – migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – in Mumbai.

In Mumbai, where the Congress was formed and from where it drew some powerful before and after independence leaders, it had yielded space to the Sena in the past and to the BJP in the last few years. It has not been able to make up its mind on whom, which Mumbaiite, it speaks for and should appeal to. Brainstorming together might have yielded some ideas, tearing each other’s hair out is a recipe for more disaster. Alas, factionalism is in its DNA.

First Published: Feb 06, 2019 23:46 IST