Why Congress Netas Do Better In BJP

GOP leaders who defect go to a party that takes risks to promote talent and does its social math

- Sagarika Ghose

Ironically, on the very weekend that Congress was meeting for its Chintan shivir in Udaipur, Manik Saha from a Congress background was sworn in as a BJP chief minister in Tripura. Saha is the fourth Congressassociated person from the Northeast who is now a BJP CM. Today eight CMs across India are former Congresspersons.

The bug of quitting Congress for better options has now bitten Hardik Patel in Gujarat, who only a few years ago was being hailed as the Congress face of the future. What makes so many Congress leaders successful ‘outside’ Congress? More explicitly, what is Congress getting wrong which BJP is getting right? Here are four key areas where an ‘old’ Congress could learn from a ‘new’ BJP.

Leadership: Congress is notoriously risk-averse when it comes to changes at the top. Election strategist Prashant Kishor recently presented a data slide which showed that in the 2019 general election, 170 Congress candidates had already lost two consecutive elections. In 2009, after its second consecutive defeat, BJP realized it needed a dramatic shift. Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, winner of three consecutive elections in the state, became the face of change in 2013.

It was a big risk for BJP to jettison then top leader LK Advani and opt for nationally untested Modi but the party took the risk. Today BJP has abandoned the Vajpayee-Advani era. Congress won’t risk moving beyond the NehruIndira years.