Congress set to hold chintan shivir soon

At a time when students are at the target of the government and the ruling BJP and when growing intolerance has widened the rift between Centre and the Opposition, the Congress is mulling holding a chintan shivir (brain-stroming session).

The Congress has held three brain-stroming sessions since Sonia Gandhi became the party chief. The first was held at Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh in 1998 (September 4 to 6),the second was in Shimla in 2003 (July 9 to 11) and third one was held in Jaipur in 2013 (January 18 and 19).

While the Panchmarhi message was ekla chalo, the Shimla exercise favoured a need for coalition against the ruling BJP. The Jaipur meet was called for the elevation of Mr Rahul Gandhi in the CWC meeting held on January 19, on the eve of the AICC meeting.

This time, however, the challenge is bigger for the Congress as it is facing Mr Narendra Modi and his team in the government, the Sangh Privar on one hand and the regional players wanting to protect their space in key states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Congress had defeated the NDA, led by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections due to tactical alliance in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and the Left’s support after the polls. But this spirit against communalism lasted for four years. The Congress managed numbers after the Left withdrew its support to the Manmohan Singh government on the issue of nuclear deal with the US. And the process of UPA’s erosion had begun when the Congress decided to have state specific alliances in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Now, the UPA has become virtually irrelevant as the Congress could not even get the Leader of Opposition’s post in the Lok Sabha. A chitan shivir, if held before or after the Assembly polls, could make revive the fighting spirit of the Congress.