For much of the day, the Congress headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in New Delhi wears a deserted look. It only fills up a little in the afternoon, when there is a press conference. At the end of March, this sense of inactivity became even more pronounced as barricades went up on the street in anticipation of a protest by the followers of a Shia cleric against the acquisition of community land in Delhi’s Jor Bagh. The blockade gave the impression that the ruling party’s national headquarters was lying abandoned.
That, to most people, would seem an obvious reaction to the insistent forecasts of imminent defeat for the Congress. But contrary to expectations, the mood inside 24 Akbar Road isn’t quite so gloomy. Rank-and-file workers of the Congress are displaying a cautious resolve.
Take, for instance, Shamim Milki, a party worker from Mugalsarai in Uttar Pradesh, who has been in Delhi for more than a week, lobbying for a Brahmin candidate for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. He had not given up his attempt even after the party announced the candidature of Ajay Rai – “a Bhumihar,” he pointed out – from the constituency. Milki contended that the high command still had the time to “correct this mistake”.
He attempted to describe the mood among party workers by throwing out an old adage: “We have reached a point where no one but Congress can defeat Congress,” he said.
Why was he so obviously ignoring the Modi wave that everyone claims is washing over India? “Because it is no longer strong enough on the ground,” Milki said. Caste factors have started to undermine the momentum of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, he maintained.
But he immediately steered the conversation back to the party that he’s concerned about. “This is not the same as saying that popular mood has returned back to Congress,” Milki said. “It has not. But even in areas where it may happen [such as Varanasi], the party does not seem to be interested in winning the election.”
Milki emphasised that the point of his trip to Delhi was to help the Congress, not the individual candidate for whom he was lobbying. “It took me a long time to realise that periodically the party takes such decisions which result in its defeat,” he said. This, he said philosophically, “is just in the nature of thing”. He explained, “A time comes when it simply cannot help it.”
He isn’t the only Congressman who isn’t as pessimistic as the forecasts should warrant. “A fortnight ago, it seemed the party would melt down in this year’s election,” said a Congressman at the party headquarters. “We thought we won’t be able to cross 100 mark.” But now, he said, he believes the Congress would get somewhere between 100 and 130 seats.
There is a general feeling at Akbar Road that the situation would not have got so bad had a few concrete measures been taken earlier. As usual, the blame is being assigned not to the party but to the government it leads. “The government,” workers assert, “should have been more forthright in dispelling the lies being spread by the BJP.”
They have grouses about the media too. “The media has started participating in this battle as an ally of the BJP,” said one worker. Then he asked, “We are talking off the record, aren’t we?” Privately, even senior Congress leaders complain about the “dubious role” a section of media is playing in these elections.
For the workers of a party that is so used to being in power, it takes a particular kind of inner strength to survive the humiliation of defeat in a general election. However, the prospect of such a defeat does not seem to bother the Congress workers unduly. They seem certain that “the transitory phase will pass over” sooner rather than later.
On Thursday, the barricades on Akbar Road were removed. From the street, the Congress office does not look quite so deserted any more.
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That, to most people, would seem an obvious reaction to the insistent forecasts of imminent defeat for the Congress. But contrary to expectations, the mood inside 24 Akbar Road isn’t quite so gloomy. Rank-and-file workers of the Congress are displaying a cautious resolve.
Take, for instance, Shamim Milki, a party worker from Mugalsarai in Uttar Pradesh, who has been in Delhi for more than a week, lobbying for a Brahmin candidate for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. He had not given up his attempt even after the party announced the candidature of Ajay Rai – “a Bhumihar,” he pointed out – from the constituency. Milki contended that the high command still had the time to “correct this mistake”.
He attempted to describe the mood among party workers by throwing out an old adage: “We have reached a point where no one but Congress can defeat Congress,” he said.
Why was he so obviously ignoring the Modi wave that everyone claims is washing over India? “Because it is no longer strong enough on the ground,” Milki said. Caste factors have started to undermine the momentum of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, he maintained.
But he immediately steered the conversation back to the party that he’s concerned about. “This is not the same as saying that popular mood has returned back to Congress,” Milki said. “It has not. But even in areas where it may happen [such as Varanasi], the party does not seem to be interested in winning the election.”
Milki emphasised that the point of his trip to Delhi was to help the Congress, not the individual candidate for whom he was lobbying. “It took me a long time to realise that periodically the party takes such decisions which result in its defeat,” he said. This, he said philosophically, “is just in the nature of thing”. He explained, “A time comes when it simply cannot help it.”
He isn’t the only Congressman who isn’t as pessimistic as the forecasts should warrant. “A fortnight ago, it seemed the party would melt down in this year’s election,” said a Congressman at the party headquarters. “We thought we won’t be able to cross 100 mark.” But now, he said, he believes the Congress would get somewhere between 100 and 130 seats.
There is a general feeling at Akbar Road that the situation would not have got so bad had a few concrete measures been taken earlier. As usual, the blame is being assigned not to the party but to the government it leads. “The government,” workers assert, “should have been more forthright in dispelling the lies being spread by the BJP.”
They have grouses about the media too. “The media has started participating in this battle as an ally of the BJP,” said one worker. Then he asked, “We are talking off the record, aren’t we?” Privately, even senior Congress leaders complain about the “dubious role” a section of media is playing in these elections.
For the workers of a party that is so used to being in power, it takes a particular kind of inner strength to survive the humiliation of defeat in a general election. However, the prospect of such a defeat does not seem to bother the Congress workers unduly. They seem certain that “the transitory phase will pass over” sooner rather than later.
On Thursday, the barricades on Akbar Road were removed. From the street, the Congress office does not look quite so deserted any more.
