Congress Needs a Caste Census to Rebuild: Why Leadership from the Margins Is Key to Survival

Haryana election results have again highlighted the serious crisis in the Congress Party and the limitations of the regional kshatraps (supremo). Congress once ruled through regional kshatraps but that was when the central leadership was powerful and could threaten states if they didn’t follow the basic ideological traits of the organization. That was Indira Gandhi who learnt to take India’s diversity along with her. Congress was the natural choice for not only the Brahmins but other powerful upper castes as well as Muslim minorities and Dalits. Slowly, the party tried to follow the Hindutva line but lost disastrously to BJP whenever it tried to outdo them.

The problem is things are not going Congress’s way due to various reasons and the biggest is the role of state leaders considered as ‘kshatraps’ who are unable to look beyond their families and jaatis. None of these khsatraps could be termed as inclusive. Some of them went overboard on their ‘inclusiveness’ and lost the base of their communities like Harish Rawat in Uttarakhand. But people like Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath and now Bhupinder Singh Hooda are overhyped leaders who gained everything from the Congress but could not go beyond their family interests and therefore damaged it at the time when the people were looking to the Congress Party for the alternative to the ruling BJP.

Don’t ignore the fact that Siddharamaiyya was defeated in Karnataka despite his good work by the caste identities as both Vokalingas and Lingayats never wanted an OBC of the marginalized sections to lead the state.

Congress’ Kshatraps and Caste Politics: An Inherent Contradiction

DK Shivakumar continues to challenge the chief minister and the powerful Vokalinga lobby is desperate to have him as chief minister like the Jats of north India. Both the Jats as well as Vokalingas-Lingayats are powerful landed savarna castes but over the years the Bahujan narratives setters for the sake of their vote bank politics put them in the OBC category. The same Bahujan narrative setters are unable to respond or keep silent when violence against Dalits occurs in those states dominated by Bahujan politics. BSP chief Mayawati herself said that though Dalit votes shifted to other parties, the same did not happen as Jats did not vote for Dalit candidates and that is a reality. The Bahujan narrative setters need to look beyond their jaati interest and see the diverse contradictions among various communities at the ground level. There is no one community which can be blamed as being ‘jaatiwadi’ or casteist as almost everyone comes under that category. The only thing is we all are looking at someone below us and are in awe of someone above us as Baba Saheb explained. Unfortunately, communities and leaders who need to stitch this broad-based participatory alliance with diverse communities are unable to go beyond their jaati interests and are trapped in their constructed image of a particular community leader.

We may discuss EVMs and other administrative issues. They are serious issues and the Election Commission; political parties and the highest court have failed collectively to assure us as to why shouldn’t the number of votes polled be equal to that of the VVPAT slips. Why has there been a huge mismatch on it and if that actually is, then why have the objections not been taken seriously by any of the agencies or bodies accountable for free and fair polls?

It is important to understand that narrative-making is important but it does not work if you don’t have the cadres and leaders representing those communities at the ground.

The Role of EVMs, Election Commission, and Fair Polls in Congress’s Defeat

You won’t get cadres and leaders of the communities if there is a narrative of the ‘dominance’ of one particular community in the party organization and structure. In Haryana, Congress went into the fray with overconfidence that it is returning to power after 10 years of anti-incumbency and incompetent government led by the non-jats. It wanted to exploit the rising Jat sentiment of returning to power but ignored the vital factor that it was only possible if the Jat leadership was ready to play the role of a facilitator ensuring the participation of all those communities particularly Dalits who were feeling threatened. Dalits who constitute about 21% of the total Haryana population can’t imagine having a chief minister of their own because 27% of Jats would not like them to be so. The first decade of rule under Bhupinder Singh Hooda has brought the Jat Dalit hostilities into the limelight where Hooda had no interest in working as a conscious keeper of the constitution and providing justice to Dalits.

Dalit Marginalization and the Failure of Inclusive Leadership in Haryana

I was witness to various movements led by Dalits for justice including Bhagana and Mirchpur where Dalits became victims of Jat hegemony in Haryana and Hooda did nothing. The Congress High Command at that time could not pursue Hooda to act against Jats who were the accused in both cases. Hence, promoting Hooda at the time when Haryana was witnessing huge anti-Jat incumbency was nothing but playing in the hands of the BJP. Even if the party wanted to ensure that it remained in command with powerful Jat votes, it was important to play an inclusive game. The humiliation given to Selja, an extremely loyal leader from the Dalit community of Haryana did not go down well with the Dalits in the state. If even after so many years, a woman of substance who had devoted her life and energy to building the party, Selja can’t expect to lead the party or be on its platform as leader of the party, then it reflects the highhandedness of Hooda family. BJP used this insult for their campaign and BSP too raised the issue. The anti-Dalit characteristic of Hooda as well as dominant Jats in the region has not diluted whether it is a reality or narrative but it has won the game so far. Congress party must understand that their leaders were made to believe that ‘Kisan’, Pahalwan and ‘Jawan’ were against BJP so cutting across the community line there is a broad anger against the government.

Frankly, the Kisan, Pahalwan and Jawan insidiously only cater to the Jat voters of Haryana. Congress did not bother to reach out to Dalits and Rajput votes. Throughout 2024, even when we all know that there was Rajput’s desperation to break out of BJP and ally with all other groups who were sympathetic to its issues, Congress leadership refused to accept the fact that they too exist. Similarly, despite Rahul Gandhi’s loud claims of Social Justice, no collective effort was made in Haryana to reach out to Dalits. The last-moment entry of Ashok Tanwar could not bring back the Dalit votes in the party and the reason is clear. Congress must understand that political parties are not social justice movements. A movement can run on one particular agenda targeting one section but politics has to be inclusive and ensure engagement with all communities. Right now, India’s poor and marginalized want to share in the power structure and that happens through their political representation at different levels. While job reservation is an important issue, parties will have to prepare them to take a categorical stand on the issues. BJP succeeded because it has an open stand on various issues, unlike Congress which is unable to take a stand. The Dalit votes in Haryana were not one-sided. The Jatav-Chamar votes who are over 50% of the total Dalit votes in Haryana went along with BSP because of Congress’s no stand on sub-categorization. The Balmikis, who are about 30% of total voters among the Dalits, voted mostly for the BJP because it supported the demand for categorization. So the Dalit votes, whether pro or anti, went along with other parties and not to Congress because it refused to take a stand.

At a public meeting, Yogendra Yadav said that an effort is being made to convert the elections to Jat versus non-Jats and he said the BJP is an expert in doing so. The party did the same in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where it pitched other communities against Yadavas. BJP might have been doing things as per its political strategy but in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and Congress are doing the same which is blaming Rajputs or Thakurs for everything wrong there. Yogendra Yadav has not written a single sentence that the same Thakurs voted against BJP in Uttar Pradesh and ensured the defeat of many of the Hindutva candidates but today opposition parties are targeting Rajputs to take Yogi Adityanath head-on. It might boomerang as the community which is nowhere in judiciary, media, industry and bureaucracy in comparison to other powerful communities of Uttar Pradesh. Haryana’s Jat versus non-Jat narrative would not have succeeded if Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others had the humility of extending their outreach to other marginalized communities particularly the Dalits in Haryana.

There are about 8% Yadav votes in Haryana and many areas adjoining Uttar Pradesh impact that. A combined campaign with Akhilesh Yadav would have worked here but the local leadership of the party refused to ally with AAP or Samajwadi Party. Many times, we know well that an ally party does not have a base in the state but we keep them in good humour and give them one or two seats so that the message goes to the communities about the intent of your party. An alliance with Samajwadi Party and a joint campaign would have served the purpose but Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not interested in that. It would have served better than allying with AAP. Congress’ AAP alliance failed because of an over-ambitious project of AAP and BJP wanted to use it. They work in different directions and multiple fronts to defeat the ‘enemy’ so Ram Rahim of Dera Sacha Sauda got released on parole and Arvind Kejriwal getting bail from the highest court during the same period can’t be ruled out for foiling the Congress chances in the state.

Apart, it is also visible that several candidates who were not given tickets from the Congress party contested as independent candidates and got an extremely handsome share of votes causing the defeat of the party. Though this happens in every party, it is also a reality that Hooda dominated everything as he was sure he would be in power and he wanted to ensure that after the victory, he became chief minister without any interference from the party High Command. Bhupinder Hooda and his dream to rule Haryana has finished but it has given Congress a severe blow. The Congress party now needs to rebuild the party and bring all stakeholders together.

The Need for a Ground-Up Rebuilding of Congress’s Leadership Structure

Bring the issues that complement and even when Rahul Gandhi raises the Caste Census and reservation issue, it is time, it is done without offending anyone. There is a big difference between political parties and civil society or intellectuals as political parties will have to cater for all while intellectuals and civil society leaders/influencers are mostly agenda-driven and might be speaking a thing out of conviction but far away from ground realities. Political parties can’t behave as charitable organisations or civil society watchdog groups. Congress also needed to be careful of the ‘loyal’ YouTubers who had no other agenda than getting likes as well as resources. The party got carried away with the agenda of settlers on social media. They remained far away from the ground realities and were just talking of their ‘man ki baat’. Congress needs to become the party of all and not of one jaati or a couple of jaatis but for that it will have to weave a narrative where every stakeholder feels safe and committed. For that to happen, the party needs to rebuild the party organisations in all the states with new blood.

Though Congress’s defeat in Haryana is shocking for the party, it may be a boon for Rahul Gandhi and others. Bhupinder Singh Hooda would have behaved similarly to other leaders such as Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath or Amrinder Singhetc once in power. He never followed the party line when Dalits were being attacked in Haryana. Congress High Command is helpless because regional kshatraps can damage the party if not benefit it and therefore it was unable to act against them but Hooda now joins the company of Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath, Bhupesh Bhagel and Harish Rawat. The time has come for the party to move on and build up the party by bringing young leaders from different communities that reflect the ground realities of the state.

All this is not to discount the unfair means which the ruling party adopted, the disappointing role of the Election Commission, the issues of fairness and EVMs. They remain vital for the health of democracy but we also know the fact that despite that parties have won elections. If the party and many others feel that EVMs have been manipulated and hacked then they must approach the court in all seriousness. Administrative issues of fair play are extremely important but still, I feel that Congress committed blunders and that can not be ignored.

Therefore, Congress would do well to do a caste census of the party structure so that it understands what ails the party, and who are the leaders dominant in the party structure yet unable to fetch votes to the party. Get a complete figure of communities in the organisations and link it with the state figures. A complete overhaul of the Congress party is not possible without a jaati-janganana or ‘caste census’ of the entire party structure. Rahul Gandhi who is advocating the caste census and social justice issues everywhere needs to start cleaning his home first as his social justice agenda will remain unimplementable if there are no takers of that in the party. Will the party ever listen?