Congress struggling to keep its house in order
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: January 06, 2022 -

COMPARED to the growing clout of the BJP in the state's political landscape and its undiminishing aura as the favourite to form the next government, the Congress party is not only struggling to keep its house in order but also focusing on diluting whatever gains the former has been making ahead of the forthcoming assembly elections.

In yet another shocking development which could be the testimony of the gradual decadence of the Congress party amidst intensification of campaigning for the polls, it lost another seasoned politician in Tengnoupal MLA D Korungthang who decided to part ways on Tuesday.

No doubt, Korungthang is not the first party legislator to seek greener pasture and the same trend of defection might continue in the coming days, but continuous departure of Congress heavyweights ever since the BJP formed the coalition government in the state could be construed as the sitting legislators lacking confidence that the Congress would be able to neutralise the growing clout of its bitterest rival.

So far for the turncoats, indifferent attitude of the high command is the common excuse or ground for the sitting and former MLAs of the Congress to shift allegiance.

However, the fact that almost all the dissidents joined the ruling BJP implies that loyalty to the party and individual integrity could be forsaken if he/she senses that the chance of furthering one's political career is much brighter with the saffron party.

Indeed, the BJP too is in a dilemma on who to choose for allotting the ticket out of the multiple intending candidates in each assembly constituency.

Contrary to the BJP's problem limited to minute scrutiny of candidates based on the winnability factor, the Congress' predicament is that for the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election it might not be able to field candidates worth reckoning in every constituency in only the second election after three consecutive terms in office.

In Korungthang's case, the Tengnoupal representative might have come to the self-conclusion that his parent party will be incapable of taking on the might of the ruling BJP which is all set to field minister Letpao Haokip, who made an unprecedented and rather daring move to abandon his Chandel assembly.

As expected the All India Congress Committee on Tuesday suspended Korungthang from the post of Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee working president for alleged involvement in anti-party activities.

In the AlCC's letter addressed to Korungthang, the reason for his suspension has been cited as conduct and activities inimical to interest of the party for the past one month.

Interestingly, the time span mentioned in the suspension letter coincides with Letpao intensifying political activities in Tengnoupal AC rather than in Chandel AC from where he was elected in the 2017 election.

With the Congress suffering one setback after another ever since it lost power, its primary goal will probably be to emerge as the second largest party and then hope that the on-going pre-election bickering among the alliance partners in the BJP-led coalition government continues so that the party could realise its dream of returning to power in partnership with one or both allies of the present regime, even though such an outcome seem unrealistic at this juncture.