Why Congress hugs parties that hurt it the most

Lovely said it wasn't fair. The Delhi Congress chief quit from his post in protest against his party's poll tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its repercussions on the ground. Arvinder Singh Lovely, a veteran Congress leader, should have known better. It's an old habit of the Congress to sleep with the enemies that destroyed it.

Just pick any of the Congress's allies in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Be it the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, they all have dented the Congress in those states.

The alliance with the AAP in Delhi, that Lovely called out, is similar. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has eaten into the voter base of the Congress in Delhi, a state that was once the party's fortress.

It was in 1967 that the Congress suffered the first defeat in three big states -- Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Another interesting fact to be noted is that the Congress, unlike the BJP, hasn't recently returned to power on its own in states from where it has been ousted.

In the game of alliances, the Congress has even gone beyond personal hurt to ally with enemies.

ALLY DMK WAS BLAMED FOR RAJIV GANDHI'S KILLING

The alliance with the DMK is particularly strange, given how the party and its former patriarch M Karunanidhi were held responsible for abetting the assassination of Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi by the Jain Commission.

That there are no permanent friends or foes in politics is exemplified by the Congress's pact with the DMK. However, this is pure double standards.

After the 5,280-page Jain Commission report was presented, the Congress withdrew support from the IK Gujral government in November 1997 over its demands to exclude DMK ministers from the Union Cabinet.

The DMK is a trusted ally of the Congress now, with the party helping it send MPs to the Rajya Sabha and boosting its Lok Sabha tally. The roots of the alliance go back 50 years.

The DMK defeated the Congress in Tamil Nadu in the 1967 Assembly election and CN Annadurai became the chief minister.

The DMK helped prop up the Indira Gandhi government at the Centre, when the Congress faced a split in 1969. A desperate Indira Gandhi, called an early general election in 1971 and shook hands with the DMK, the very same party that dethroned it a couple of years ago.

Since then, the politics of Tamil Nadu took a Dravidian turn and the DMK and the AIADMK took turns to form the government with the help of the Congress.

The Congres, which had an uninterrupted reign in Tamil Nadu from 1951 to 1967, was reduced to a junior partner, a consolation of eight parties, it still holds on to.

LOSING UTTAR PRADESH TO MANDAL-KAMANDAL

The road to Delhi is through Uttar Pradesh, a state that sends the maximum (80) MPs to the Lok Sabha.

The decline in the Congress's fortunes is evident from how it lost Uttar Pradesh, a state that sent the Nehru-Gandhi family to the Lok Sabha.

The Congress had an uninterrupted rule in UP till 1967, when it was dethroned by the Bharatiya Kranti Dal and Charan Singh became the Chief Minister.

The following years, UP saw the return of the Congress and the Bharatiya Kranti Dal amid intervening President's Rule. The Janata Party seized power in the lates 70s after Indira Gandhi's National Emergency.

It was in 1989 that the Janata Dal of Mulayam Singh Yadav defeated the Congress and the party never returned to power in Uttar Pradesh.

The country was witnessing the emergence of the BJP and its Hindutva politics, and Mandal-Kamandal (caste- and religion-based) politics would be the mainstay.

Mulayam Singh Yadav formed the Samajwadi Party, and the Congress has now allied with the party that is being run by his son Akhilesh Yadav.

The Congress that won 388 of 430 seats in the then-undivided UP Assembly in 1952 has just two MLAs in the state.

The Samajwadi Party has given the Congress 17 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats to contest on, a move experts think is a largesse given its condition in the Assembly segments.

THE BIHAR OUSTER AND ALLIANCE WITH LALU'S RJD

It was also in 1967 that the Congress was unseated from power in Bihar. The Jana Kranti Dal defeated the Congress, but it returned to power after a year in 1968.

In 1990, Lalu Prasad Yadav defeated Jagannath Mishra of the Congress and became the Chief Minister. The Congress never returned to power after that in Bihar on its own.

The three decades since 1990 saw the emergence of social justice parties, and the BJP and the Congress have been in coalition governments in Bihar with their help.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, who ousted the Congress from Bihar for good, founded the Janata Dal splinter Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). It is the RJD, which the Congress is in alliance with in Bihar. In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the Congress has 17 MLAs.

CONGRESS LOSES GROUND IN BIRTHPLACE MAHARASHTRA

Maharashtra (former Bombay state) is where the Congress was born. So, the party being elbowed out in the state that sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha is both significant and poignant.

The Congress enjoyed uninterrupted power in Maharashtra till 1978, after which a party faction, Congress (U), led by then Karnataka Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs led the state government. Sharad Pawar sided with Devaraj Urs and took over as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, but his government was dismissed in 1980 when Indira Gandhi returned to power at the Centre.

Sharad Pawar returned to the Congress fold in 1986 and remained the Chief Minister till 1995.

However, his ceding space is cited as one of the reasons for the rise of the Shiv Sena.

Incidentally, after Sharad Pawar, the Congress could form the government in Maharashtra only with the help of UPA partners.

Pawar would break away again from the Congress and form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), opposing Sonia Gandhi's projection as a prime ministerial face due to her Italian roots.

The rise of the Shiv Sena and the formation of the NCP put the Congress at a disadvantage in Maharashtra, where it had 13 of the 20 Chief Ministers.

The Congress is going into the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as a junior partner of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, which is contesting 21 of the 48 seats. The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP is also an ally of the Congress. So, in Maharashtra, the Congress is in alliance with not one, but two parties that have been behind its downfall.

LOSING POWER SEAT DELHI TO AAP AND MAKING IT AN ALLY

The Congress, with freedom fighter Chaudhary Brahm Prakash as the Chief Minister, was in power in Delhi from 1953 until the CM's office was abolished for 37 years in 1956.

When the CM's office was reinstated, the BJP formed the government in 1993, only to be defeated by Congress under Sheila Dixit.

Led by Sheila Dikshit, the Congress remained in power for 15 years until 2013 when the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) overthrew it.

Kejriwal, then an anti-corruption crusader, attacked the Congress and the Sheila Dixit government on corruption and promised a clean government. A decisive shift of voters was also seen away from the Congress, into the AAP's kitty.

Interestingly, it was the Congress which supported the AAP in forming its first government in Delhi. But Delhi was to see AAP's grip firming on it and the Congress turned irrelevant.

Ten years on, the AAP has an overwhelming majority in Delhi Assembly and the Congress has allied with it to contest the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, in yet another example of the Congress sleeping with its enemy.

That it was a political arithmetic bereft of any chemistry was what made Arvinder Singh Lovely resign from the post of Delhi Congres President. He said the party workers on the ground were never in favour of a pact with the AAP.

The AAP is one of the examples in a long list of parties that were behind the downfall of the Congress, but with whom it ended up forming alliances.

WHY THE CONGRESS SLEEPS WITH THE ENEMY?

But why has the Congress actually embraced its rivals and formed the INDIA bloc?

Speaking earlier to IndiaToday.In, author and political commentator Rasheed Kidwai explained the Congress's do-or-die situation. He said the Congress was fighting to actually hurt the BJP.

"The Congress is not gaining anything from the alliance. The INDIA bloc is its desperate attempt to deprive the BJP of as many seats as possible," said Rasheed Kidwai.

Kidwai said it was an alliance of compulsion, not of choice, for the Congress. And it was the same for its alliance partners too. "Realistically, the Congress doesn't have the strength to beat the BJP. The Congress was in a hopeless situation. At least, this alliance is offering some hope to the Congress," he said.

Alliances, even if with rivals, boost the chances of the Congress.

In 48-seat Maharashtra, experts say, the Congress might get just two seats alone, but in an alliance it has the chance of winning seven seats. Not only that. It can deprive the BJP-led NDA of around 20 seats, say analysts.

Moreover, it is about trying to provide a viable alternative to the BJP.

"The Congress had to sell a dream to voters and that was only possible with the INDIA partners," Rasheed Kidwai told IndiaToday.In.

It is true not just for the 2024 Lok Sabha election but most recent polls.

The Congress realises that parties like the DMK, RJD, SP and the AAP have sapped its strength, and it can only counter a growing BJP with the help of these regional players. That is the reason why the Congress, a national party, has conceded to the smaller parties and is hugging its enemies as friends.