Congress did not change even with contemplation: three camps were held during the tenure of Sonia Gandhi, success was achieved only once; Party lost continuously after Jaipur

Posted on 15th Mar 2022 by rohit kumar

After the defeat in the elections of five states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has decided to organize a contemplation camp. This is not the first time that after a humiliating defeat, Congress is going to organize a Chintan Shivir.

 

Even before this, Congress has organized 'Chintan Shivir' thrice with Sonia Gandhi as its president, but even once the results have not come in its favour. The last Chintan Shivir was organized by the Congress in 2013 in Jaipur, but since then the performance of the party has been continuously declining, that is, this camp has not worked.

 

Pachmarhi's contemplation camp in 1998

 

Seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the Gandhi family returned to the Congress organization and Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the party by removing Sitaram Kesari. Sonia organized a Chintan Shivir by uniting Congress leaders in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh. In this camp, the alliance-stricken Congress decided the policy of 'Ekla Chalo'. However, Congress did not succeed in the 1999 general election and the party could win only 114 seats. At the same time, under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a coalition of 24 parties formed the government at the center.

 

Shimla's Chintan Shivir in 2003

 

After getting defeated in the assembly elections of many states including UP, Gujarat in 2003, Congress once again decided to organize a Chintan Shivir. In 2003, the party organized a Chintan Shivir in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh. In this camp, Congress decided to contest the elections in alliance with the parties of general ideology by reversing the policy set in Pachmarhi. Congress got the benefit of this decision and in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the party was successful in forming the government at the center by defeating the Atal-Advani duo riding on the chariot of Shining India. Manmohan Singh of Congress became the Prime Minister of the country.

 

Jaipur's Chintan Shivir in 2013

 

After a crushing defeat in many states including Anna Andolan, UP, Gujarat, Punjab, Congress organized a Chintan Shivir in the pink city of Jaipur. This camp of Congress remained around the promotion of Rahul Gandhi in the party. It was decided to make Rahul Gandhi, who was working as the General Secretary in the camp, the Vice President. At the same time, Congress decided in this camp that the state president and district president will not contest the Lok Sabha or assembly elections. He has to give up his post to contest the election.

 

After this contemplation camp, the performance of the party went down. Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2014 elections. Not only this, Congress has lost dozens of assembly elections so far. At the same time, Congress got a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections as well.

 

Gandhi family's resignation is not accepted in CWC

 

On the one hand, while the Congress party is struggling to return to power, after every defeat, there is a risk of resignation on behalf of the Gandhi family. However, it is never accepted in the CWC. After the defeat in 2014, Sonia Gandhi offered to resign from the post of president and Rahul Gandhi as vice-president, but Manmohan Singh took responsibility for the defeat. Thereafter, the CWC had rejected the resignation. The same thing happened this time too.

 

Not only this, even in 2019, CWC was not accepting Rahul's resignation. However, Rahul refused to withdraw his resignation and shared it on social media. At present, three members of the Gandhi family, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi are CWC members.

 

Sometimes Gandhi family offered to resign from CWC

 

Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka trio offered to resign on March 13, 2022

 

On 24 August 2021, angry with the G-23 leaders, Sonia Gandhi spoke of leaving the post of interim president.

 

On 15 June 2019, Rahul resigned, taking responsibility for the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

 

Taking responsibility for the defeat in the general election on 25 May 2019, Rahul Gandhi offered to resign.

 

On May 19, 2014, Sonia-Rahul offered to resign together after coming to power at the Centre.

 

In March 1998, due to the uproar after becoming the president, Sonia Gandhi offered to resign.

 

Rahul has said 11 times in 9 years that he should learn from defeat.

 

Rahul Gandhi has spoken about learning for the 11th time in the last 9 years after the defeat in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha. Recently, Rahul Gandhi talked about accepting defeat in five states including UP, Punjab, and learning from defeat. Earlier Bengal elections (2021), Lok Sabha elections (2019), Meghalaya-Tripura-Nagaland (2018), UP-Punjab-Goa-Uttarakhand (2017), Gujarat (2017), Bengal-Assam (2016), Delhi (2015) In Haryana-Maharashtra (2014), Lok Sabha elections (2014), Delhi (2013) and Rajasthan (2013) elections, he has spoken about accepting defeat by tweeting and learning.

 

2 committees were formed for improvement and review, report not implemented

 

In 1999 and 2014, a committee was formed under the chairmanship of senior leader AK Antony to review the defeat of the Congress. Both times Antony submitted his report to the high command, but it was not implemented. After the 2014 elections, the Antony Committee had recommended that a large-scale reshuffle of the organization was needed, but this has not yet been implemented in Congress.