After the jolt in Karnataka — the ninth of its kind in the latest 10 state assembly elections — the Congress seems to have realised how disastrous its tradition of “appointing” its state leaders, rather than letting them emerge democratically by dint of their work, has proved to be. Nothing else can explain the central leadership’s sudden decision to apply the reverse gear and hold a “secret ballot” that resulted in the election of Mallikarjun Kharge as leader of the Congress legislature party in Karnataka. This did not prevent his rivals from protesting.

Whether this would become the pattern in all states in the future — or, better still, evolve into a system of straightforward elections between two or more candidates openly in the field — remains to be seen. However, even a small advance is welcome in the case of an excessively centralised party that remains mired in a world of its own making. Typical of the party’s entrenched mindset was an absurd statement made by one of its general secretaries, Margaret Alva. Obviously irked by widespread criticism, even within the party ranks, that failure to project an acceptable chief ministerial candidate (as against the BJP’s B.S. Yeddyurappa) contributed to its defeat, she claimed that the Congress, “being a democratic party”, never projected a chief ministerial candidate in advance. Its chief ministers, according to her, were “elected by the Congress legislators”!

Pray, when did it last happen and in which state? The bitter truth is that ever since Indira Gandhi established her supremacy in the Congress and the country in 1971, she saw to it that no Congress leader capable of building an independent power base was allowed to emerge in any state. For, he or she could be a potential challenge to the central leadership, current or in the process of being groomed. No wonder, every Congress legislature party duly met after winning an assembly election and requested her to nominate the chief minister. The late doyen of Indian journalism, Nikhil Chakravartty, once wrote: “Congress chief ministers are air-transported from New Delhi to state capitals.”

... contd.