NEW DELHI: Even as the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh has plunged into a crisis, the Congress top brass has not reacted, nor has it sent any senior leader to reach out to the rebels.
Political analysts are divided over why the Grand Old Party has chosen to do so. Some attributed it to ‘leadership vacuum’ while a few others said the party knew it was futile to try reconciliation with the miffed MLAs.
“There is a huge vacuum in the Congress national leadership. Hence, both Rahul and Sonia Gandhi could not take any concrete decision to depute a senior leader to handle the crisis. Even if the government is saved in MP, it will only be due to the efforts of Chief Minister Kamal Nath and not due to their national leadership,” political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay said.
Jai Mrug, the founder of Voter Mood Research, said that the leadership did not see any value in solving the crisis.
“Once an MLA has resigned, he cannot be coaxed to take back his resignation. Also, there had been dissent from Scindia for a long time. The leadership did not feel surprised that the Scindia scion chose to leave the party. Hence, there was no leader deputed to handle the crisis, like in Maharashtra or Karnataka,” he said.
Professor Yashwant Ranjan from Delhi University, on the other hand, said the Congress leadership was clueless and that the tussle between the old guard and the new generation had come back to bite the party.
“The old guard versus new guard issue had been lingering in the party. They (congress leadership) chose Kamal Nath over Scindia in MP and Ashok Gehlot over Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan. This miffed a lot of young leaders and today we saw the crescendo of the same. Rahul and Sonia are clueless about solving this long-standing intra-party issue,” he said.
All the analysts, however, agree that Scindia is not a mass leader and his entry into the saffron camp may not reap big electoral dividends for the BJP.
‘No poll dividends’
All the analysts, however, agree that Scindia is not a mass leader and his entry into the saffron camp may not reap big electoral dividends for the BJP.