Jagmeet Brar may not be a one-off case: Congress could face an implosion soon

Dissent in the

is gradually increasing. Lesser leaders have been found speaking openly against the top leadership since the Lok Sabha debacle and these voices may soon begin to speak in unison, creating a real danger for the Gandhis, the powercentre of the 129-year-old party.

Former member of the Congress Working Committee Jagmeet Singh Brar has stuck to his stand demanding a break for the Gandhis. He said the duo needed to take a two-year break and interact with the people across the nation, paving the way for some other leader.

Brar may not be an exception

The party took steps against Brar for his opinion but a section in the party close to 10 Janpath has already started fearing that there could be a serious and bigger dissent brewing in the lower rungs of the party. It is feared that some veteran leaders of the party could also back Brar's voice, causing a serious implosion in the party ahead of the next set of crucial state elections.

Demand for Sonia's 'ouster' not without a reason

Brar's demand that the party chief's tenure should be fixed to 10 years is important for through this demand, he has sought an 'ouster' of Sonia Gandhi, who has been serving in the post for nearly two decades now. Brar's reiteration definitely provides meat to the 'palace coup' theory which was floated by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently to mock Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's act of storming into the well of the Lok Sabha.

The Congress hasn't succeeded much since 2009 LS polls

Those close to 10 Janpath will realise that a party needs to win elections time and again to tame rebels within its ranks. But the Congress hasn't succeeded in winning any major election except Karnataka since 2009 when it did good in Lok Sabha election and assembly elections in states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Its form went downhill ever since the Commonwealth scam broke out in 2010 and the party began to suffer serious electoral adverses.

The party finished far from its expectations in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Tripura, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in the subsequent years. The only high points were Bengal (where it rode the Mamata Banerjee wave), Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka (where the BJP failed) and a few northeastern states where there are yet no alternatives to the grand-old party.

Gandhis have failed to revive party in states where they have been losing for sometime

What holds significance amid these performances is that the Gandhis didn't contribute much in the states where the Congress managed to win but failed to revive the party in states where it has been losing for sometime now. The repeated failure of Rahul Gandhi, considered the future of the party, to deliver during the bad days irrespective of his promises has seriously hurt the party's psyche and there is no surprise if people like Brar are raising their voices of dissent today.

Congress will have a serious problem if it doesn't succeed in next state polls

The top Congress leadership will face a serious challenge if the party fails in the next set of assembly polls due later this year. There is not much hope that the tide will be turned soon for the Congress, post-Lok Sabha decimation, is yet to get its act together and is more bothered about issues like parliamentary status (like that of the leader of the opposition) and putting up opposition for the sake of opposition in the Parliament.

Wisdom lies in engaging with Modi govt and not attacking it on every second issue

The Congress leadership still doesn't realise that there is little hope in attacking the Modi government at this very moment and wisdom lies in engaging with the government in crucial issues. The result is certainly going to have a disastrous consequence for the Gandhis either way. It will lose its credibility as an Opposition and an implosion could topple it from control.

The Congress is paying for the ambitious project of establishing family rule that Indira Gandhi had initiated five decades ago. It seems the project is approaching its tipping point fast.