This is symptomatic of a larger crisis within the party in the making for a long time. Now it has reached the stage that some Congress leaders are emboldened to question the Gandhi family openly.

For instance, in August last year 23 leaders, including the opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and his deputy Anand Sharma and some former Congress chief ministers, had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi. They demanded a "full time" leadership, dissolution of powers to state units, and revamping the CWC in line with the party constitution

Though Sonia Gandhi managed to douse the fire, the dissent continues, as was confirmed in last week's CWC meeting, where there was a public spat between the old guard and the Gandhis. What is bothering the leaders is that just Modi- bashing or living in the past gory will not get the party back to power. Added to that, some disenchanted leaders are leaving the party for greener pastures.

Even some young leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, seen close to Rahul, left the party to join the BJP.

Past party history reveals, a party crisis is nothing new as it faced a crisis on multiple occasions earlier. For instance, there were differences in the 1939 presidential contest between Subhas Chandra Bose and Pattabhi Sitharamaiah. The latter won with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi. Since then, on various occasions, there were differences of opinions, but the Nehru – Gandhi family emerged victorious on most occasions. In recent times, since 1998, the party has not even gone through an election motion. The entire organizational structure is filled with nominations.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, though the longest ever chief of the party, has promoted her son Rahul Gandhi. His detractors claim that he is not acting as a full time politician.. Or else why should he miss so many opportunities, including joining Manmohan Singh's cabinet, which came his way? He has the pedigree, political background, dynastic weight, and a name. However, he lacks consistency. After Rahul resigned in 2019 August, owning responsibility for the 2019Lok Sabha polls defeat, the leadership crisis worsened. The party could not choose a non – Gandhi after which Sonia has become the interim Congress party.

If the Congress is serious about revival, it has to look from within. With the family unable to get the party back to power for two consecutive terms, the family has become weak. As for the leadership crisis, Sonia has had her innings. Rahul Gandhi has failed twice, and PriyankaVadra magic has not worked in U.P. Above all, the Gandhis want to continue in power.

To cure the sickness, one has to know what is the root cause. For that, the first thing is to examine what has gone wrong. While Antony Committee was set up in 2014 for this purpose, but the report has not even been discussed. After its loss in 2019, the party didn't even bother to go through the motions of setting up a committee.

The second is a smooth generational change in the organization. While Sonia was able to install her son as the party chief and induct her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as General Secretary, she could not check the party's erosion or build trust in the apprehensive old guard. Ever since Rahul took complete charge between 2013 and 2019, Rahul Gandhi's evident discomfort with the old guard and the latter's animosity against the Rahul team, was visible.

The third is to go back to the grassroots level politics and prepare the cadre, which will work during the elections. The party has lost contact with the people.

The fourth is a decentralization of authority to the state and district level leaders so that power is not concentrated in Delhi. It is imperative to give up the Delhi centric functioning.

The fifth is to develop second-rung leaders. There was a time when the states had strong chief ministers and PCC presidents who had wielded their own influence. Accountability also needs to be fixed.

The sixth is now that it is a coalition era, the Congress needs to redefine itself and befriend regional parties. The Gandhis need to change the way they have run the Congress in the last decade or so.

The seventh is a new narrative to attract the voters and redefining the party ideology.

Already it is too late and if the Gandhis do not wake up now, the party will deteriorate further. As Ghulam Nabi Azad has said, the party is at the 'historic low.' It will require massive efforts to revive the party if it really wants to dethrone the BJP from its present entrenched position. (IPA Service)