The fact remains that his efforts to make the people realize and comprehend his narrative have not succeeded in preparing the strong base of committed crusaders who can act as vanguards. His narrative simply appears to be an effort to make people aware the task to counter the communal and divisive narrative but unfortunately it has not reached to that level to rejuvenate the Congress workers as the RSS has done with its cadres in Maharashtra elections this month.

No doubt it certainly helped INDIA bloc and especially Congress to gain some seats, but it failed to inspire the Dalits, poor and common people to rise and fight the threat of right as was evident from the electoral results of the bye-election to 48 assembly seats. Even in the constituencies where the voters in the just held Lok Sabha elections had voted for INDIA bloc, in this election they pressed the button for BJP. In the LS election, they had pushed the BJP to the periphery, giving the impression that they were ready to fight them ideologically, but the assembly results as also by polls portray a different picture.

It is universally known that electoral defeat often eclipses the theoretical and ideological narrative of the political party. In electoral politics, the number of seats won and the percentage of popular votes polled decide the stature and public acceptance of the party. Certainly both these indices do not favour Congress to continue as the leader of the INDIA bloc, face of the opposition. It has lost much of its shine. People have started questioning the feasibility and also relevance of Rahul’s narrative in getting votes for the Congress Party as also INDIA Bloc.

Rahul’s caste narrative might have wider implications and spectrum, but it has simply been perceived as a mechanism to appease the OBC, EBC, Muslims and Dalits. The message of empowerment of the Dalits and poor has gone missing. It was noticed that a large section of the Dalits, OBC and EBC voted for the BJP in the recent elections.. If the members of these sections and even common people could not make out the bigger implication of his narrative, the Congress leaders and cadres have to draw proper lessons from that.

After its poor performance in Haryana and in Maharashtra assembly polls, it has lost its clout in the INDIA bloc. This was clearly noticeable at the swearing in ceremony of Hemant Soren at Moradabad maidan in Ranchi on Thursday. Both Mamata Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi along with Mallikarjun Kharge were present as guests, but they did not interact. On the contrary almost all the opposition leaders exchanged pleasantries with the West Bengal Chief Minister Even Deputy CM of Karnataka D K Shivkumar shook hands. This public reception nevertheless somehow managed to send a message that INDIA bloc leaders were united and in search of some way to resurge unitedly to fight the BJP.

It was certainly not merely a coincidence that TMC leaders used the occasion to project Mamata as the leader of INDIA. The leaders around Mamata, have been quite vocal for announcing Mamata as the public face of the INDIA bloc. After Congress debacle in Maharashtra, TMC’s senior leaders have once again virtually in a chorus, have raised the demand for change of INDIA leadership. A TMC Lok Sabha member did not restrain: 'Your all experiments have failed. It shall set aside its ego and recognise Mamata Banerjee as the leader of the INDIA bloc. The Congress has failed to achieve the desired result either in Haryana or in Maharashtra. Electorally Congress has failed to reach out to the people”.

He literally censured Congress by saying: "We had tremendous hope from the Congress that they would do better. If they had done better, BJP and Narendra Modi would have been under pressure. If you really want to fight against the BJP and Narendra Modi, INDIA alliance should be stronger. And to make it stronger, one leader is required. Now who can be the leader? That's the core question". Virtually challenging Rahul, he said: “Mamata Banerjee's "proven leadership and grassroots connect" makes her the "most suitable" figurehead for the INDIA alliance. They must set aside their ego and accept Mamata Banerjee as the leader of the INDIA bloc.”

Mamata is not willing to accept Congress leadership, precisely Rahul, was evident from TMC boycotting the coordination meeting of INDIA bloc on Monday which was to decide the floor strategy in Lok Sabha. TMC also opposed Congress move to disrupt the Parliament proceedings only on the issue of Gautam Adani. Much to the embarrassment of Rahul, TMC said it wanted both Houses to function to make the government accountable on things ranging from central funding to the situation in Manipur. The TMC also boycotted an opposition meet on Wednesday aimed at discussing key matters for the ongoing session. The fact is Congress has been witnessing decline in its stature notwithstanding its winning all the three seats in Karnataka and one in MP. Congress lost all seats in Rajasthan except one which it held earlier.

The main reason for the poor performance of the Congress has been Rahul’s inability to differentiate the electoral compulsions and ideological necessity. Its ideological ambiguity simply created confusion in the minds of the targeted voters. A vague concept of the vision has been primarily responsible for the present crisis. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the Congress to convince its supporters of what it stood for and its vision for India. The OBC, EBC and Dalit and even minorities were confused about the ideological positions of the party.

The Congress leadership and Rahul Gandhi must introspect hard about the current political narrative being pursued and find out what went wrong in its strategy that in just six months, after the Lok Sabha polls, the Party lost support of tribals and dalits in Maharashtra and Haryana while Hemant Soren trounced BJP in the tribal belts in Jharkhand where the BJP could win in only one out of the 29 tribal seats.

The contrast is worth analyzing. The Congress is still the biggest party in the INDIA Bloc. Its narrative matters for the opposition. The narrative has to be finetuned so that the people to whom it is targeted, can easily understand the core issues. The Party and Rahul Gandhi have to take along the people. The effectiveness of a political narrative lies in the scale of acceptability by the common masses and not just in its content. (IPA Service)