In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress could not gather the required number of members for the recognition of the leader of the opposition.
The 138 year old Congress Party got the opportunity to rule independent India for a maximum of 56 years through six Prime Ministers. Immediately after independence, the reins of the country were in the hands of Congress. At that time there was no formal opposition and no opposition leader in the Parliament. Only those who were not in Congress were considered the opposition. But till 2014, the Congress Party, which had dominated the Parliament for a long time, not only lost power but also lost the status of leader of the opposition.
For the second time in a row in 2019, the party could not gather the required number of members in the Lok Sabha for the recognition of the leader of the opposition. Congress dominated the first five Lok Sabha elections. It ran the government at the Center during the period 1947–1977, including the period of the Provisional House. Although Congress was out of power in nine states in the 1967 elections, the party continued to be successful in the Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi were the Prime Ministers of the country.
When the party suffered its first major setback
The party suffered a major setback in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections when the Congress was almost wiped out from North India in the Janata wave against the Emergency. However, Congress soon made a comeback in 1980. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister till 1984 and then Rajiv Gandhi till 1989. Further, the Congress-led UPA coalition ruled under the prime ministership of Narasimha Rao in 1991-96 and Dr. Manmohan Singh in the period 2004-14.
read this also
Big difference between Congress before and after independence
Of course, Congress is a 138 year old party but there is a huge difference between the Congress before and after independence. The party organization in the Congress was in a decisive position in the freedom struggle. The Congress party after independence has been synonymous with Nehru-Gandhi. During this period, whether the party was in power or in opposition, in both cases the decisions of the Nehru-Gandhi family were final.
After independence, there have been 18 presidents of the Congress Party. After independence, out of these 76 years, members of the Nehru-Gandhi family have been the president of the party for 38 years. The 20 presidents of the remaining period either bowed before their families or had to step down. In fact, the beginning of the family’s dominance fell in the election of the party president in 1946, just before independence, when under the pressure of Gandhiji, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was elected president even after there was no proposal from any state committee. In this election, 12 out of 15 state committees were in favor of Sardar Patel and two in favor of Acharya Kripalani. One committee was neutral.
Only the one who is acceptable to the Nehru-Gandhi family is the president.
In the history of Congress, the presidential election of 1950 is remembered when Sardar Patel faction candidate Purushottam Das Tandon defeated Nehru-backed Acharya Kripalani. After the death of Sardar Patel on 15 December 1950, Tandon had to resign under pressure from Nehru. After that, only the Nehru-Gandhi family or their loyalists could hold on to the party presidentship.
The reason for the historic split of Congress in 1969 was the challenge the Nehru-Gandhi family was facing from within the party. The then Congress President S. Indira Gandhi did not accept Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, the presidential candidate selected by the party under the leadership of Ninjaligappa. He provided support and victory to independent VV Giri. The party got divided into two but through a landslide victory in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, Indira Gandhi proved that where she and her family are, that is the real Congress.
Sonia’s green signal for Rao’s coronation
After the massive defeat of 1977, Congress divided once again in 1978. But the family retained control over the party through its return to power in 1980. How dependent the country’s oldest party has become on the Nehru-Gandhi family can be seen after the death of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Apparently, no member of the family was in active politics for the next six years, but in 1991, the coronation of Narasimha Rao to the post of Prime Minister was possible only with the consent of Sonia Gandhi. As Prime Minister, Rao kept trying every possible way to keep Sonia Gandhi happy. The matter is different that they were not successful in it.
Gandhi family strong in party despite shrinking support base
After Sonia Gandhi’s formal decision to enter active politics, the then Congress President Sita Ram Kesari’s humiliating departure from the post and Congress headquarters in 1998 is a part of history. The dominance of this family was discussed during both the tenures of the Prime Ministership of Dr. Manmohan Singh of the UPA government between 2004-14. Of course, in the meantime, Congress’s support base has continuously shrunk, but the hold of the Nehru-Gandhi family on the party remains intact.
At present the party president is Mallikarjun Kharge, but the leadership of the Gandhi family is acceptable to even the smallest leaders and workers of the party. At present, the party has governments on its own in only three states, Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh. In states like Jharkhand and Bihar, she is connected to power as a junior partner. Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest state, from where three members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Ministers, has a share of only one out of 80 Lok Sabha seats and only two seats in the 403-member Assembly.
Didn’t even get the status of leader of opposition
The first Lok Sabha elections after independence were held in 1952. In the intervening period, after the work of the Constituent Assembly was completed, it was converted into a temporary parliament. The freedom struggle was led by Congress. Naturally, most of the members of the Constituent Assembly were also associated with it. There was no formal opposition in the 313-member temporary assembly. Those who were not in Congress were considered unaffiliated members.
Initially their number was 22. This number increased to 28 in 1951. For the first time, after the split of Congress in 1969, Congress (O) leader Dr. Ram Subhag Singh got the official status of Leader of the Opposition. But the party which has been ruling the longest in independent India has not been able to secure ten percent of the total number of Lok Sabha seats required for the Leader of the Opposition in the last two Lok Sabha elections. It got 44 seats in 2014 and 52 seats in 2019.
Also read: Is Ram Mandir necessary or unemployment? Who is Sam Pitroda who raised this question?