Gehlot again! What’s Congress’s fascination with tired and retired

Weeks before Congress’s Haryana debacle, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) appointed former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot a senior observer for the Assembly polls. His task seemed rather simple. Stop the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which faced a two-term anti-incumbency, from returning to power in Haryana.
Contrary to what the AICC might have envisioned, sources suggest, Ashok Gehlot spent most of his time in Haryana within the comfort of his quarters. He attended just a handful of rallies and press conferences in Haryana, suggests the former Rajasthan CM’s X feed.
In what was perceived to be a sure-shot, comfortable win, turned into a humiliating defeat. Congress general secretary organisation KC Venugopal said, the “party will take appropriate steps going forward” on “the big upset”.
The Congress said it would learn from its mistakes. However, the lists of observers for the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections don’t suggest so.
Days after the Haryana loss, as the Congress named senior observers and coordinators who would look at the affairs of the party in the twin Assembly elections, Ashok Gehlot features prominently, yet again.
A look at the election in-charges and observers of the Congress in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand reveals that the party has consistently relied on a roster of leaders with bad marksheet in recent tests.
From Ashok Gehlot to Charanjit Singh Channi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to Bhupesh Baghel, the high command’s selections for these critical roles have largely been the same old guard. These leaders have either lost elections, faded from the political scene, lack grassroots appeal, or have been safely accommodated in the Rajya Sabha for some time now.
Many of these leaders, tasked with engaging both the electorate and local party leaders, not only lack mass appeal, but also fail as efficient organisational hands.
The Congress said it would introspect after the Haryana defeat. On Tuesday, the AICC published a detailed list of senior observers and senior coordinators for the Maharashtra Assembly election.
The list included three former chief ministers and had nine senior observers and two senior coordinators.
Gehlot wasn’t the only leader dislodged from power who was on that list. Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel were on it too. Congress fought and lost Assembly elections in Punjab and Chhattisgarh with Channi and Baghel as the CM face, respectively.
Not just Baghel, his deputy TS Singhdeo, who oversaw Congress’s exit from Chhattisgarh, is among the observers.
Channi hasn’t proven himself as a senior observer for the Congress in the recent Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.
North Maharashtra’s observer is Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain. The Congress sent him to the Rajya Sabha when he was seeking an MLA ticket in Karnataka, according to a Deccan Herald report from 2021.
Former Rajasthan deputy CM of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot has been tasked with the Marathwada region.
With Pilot as the Congress general secretary for Chhattisgarh, the Congress got just one seat against BJP’s 10 in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Interestingly, Gehlot and Pilot, who have a history of conflict, are on the same panel, albeit for two different regions. Gehlot in 2022, labelled Pilot a “traitor”. In Rajasthan, Pilot eyed the CM’s post that Gehlot was not ready to relinquish.
Other names on the Maharashtra list include, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara, who was moved to the third spot in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet after state party chief DK Shivakumar was made the deputy CM.
Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik and former Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Pande, are the two coordinators.
Not just for Maharashtra, a similar pattern can be noticed in the Jharkhand list as well.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who lost his Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in June, was made one of the senior observers for Jharkhand. The seat was considered a Congress fortress as Chowdhury won it five times since 1999.
Katihar MP Tariq Anwar, and deputy chief minister of Telangana Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, are the other two senior observers for Jharkhand.
And, unlike Maharashtra, Jharkhand doesn’t have coordinators.
For the recently concluded J&K Assembly election, Charanjit Singh Channi and Himachal Pradesh’s deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri were named the observers.
Channi, who has now been named for Maharashtra duty, didn’t get the desired result for the Congress in J&K.
In J&K, the Congress allied with Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference (NC). It had direct contests with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in most seats of Jammu region, while the NC contested up north in Kashmir.
Although the NC had a good strike rate in the Kashmir region, Congress hit a historic low in Jammu, winning just one seat.
Two Congress working presidents lost their seats in the Union Territory too.
Despite its repeated electoral setbacks, the Congress continues to rely on the same set of leaders as election in-charges and observers, many of whom lack grassroots appeal or have faced recent defeats in one way or another.
The party’s failure to adapt its strategy or bring fresh faces into organisational roles has been one of the major criticisms it has faced for almost a decade.
This brings us to the big questions — why is it so tough for Congress to put fresh, young, and actually effective leaders in these crucial roles? What’s the Congress’s fascination with the “tired and retired” in the party?