Unenviable tasks are many before Kharge

Kharge is the new Congress boss. It certainly is a great honour and a huge responsibility. He is the first leader from outside Nehru-Gandhi family in last two decades and faces the herculean task of resurrecting the party which is decimated.

The octogenarian Kharge is the sixth president in the party's 137-year-old history who does not belong to the Gandhi family. In his new avatar, the veteran leader will have to shoulder a major responsibility and hit the ground running for the next general elections which are about 18 months away. The Bharat Jodo Yatra alone cannot help the Congress take on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party needs to go in for major reforms to take on the BJP.

This is where Kharge would be facing a litmus test in providing effective leadership to the party as it faces its worst crisis "structurally, organisationally, and even in terms of ideological leadership." The new president will have to overcome several challenges to take on the BJP. The first and foremost is he should be given a free hand and not remain a proxy president. He should be able to send the message loud and clear that he is the real boss. The question is in Congress, is such a revolutionary change possible? Jairam Ramesh had commented a day ago that the beauty of democracy in Congress is that it could elect a non-Gandhi member as president. But he did not explain if this beauty is only cosmetic one or real.

All state units are riddled with groupism and once Kharge takes charge, all the dissidents would rush to Delhi one after another and setting the house in order would be a real headache for the new president. They would flood Kharge with complaints. What kind of fire-fighting team Kharge will put together is to be seen.

Will Kharge take independent decisions to cleanse the party and set the wheels moving or will he depend on guidance from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi? If his statement that he will not consult the Nehru-Gandhi family on every decision but would seek their guidance is a diplomatic way of saying that he would be guided by Sonia Gandhi.

No doubt, Kharge is a veteran in politics and has the capacity to soothe the ruffled feathers and reduce tensions. But he will have to deal with dissensions within the Congress which has been a challenging task in recent years; several senior leaders have either deserted the party or expressed their unhappiness with the way it's run.

It also remains to be seen whether a politician from Southern India will be able to speak the lingo of the North, particularly states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh which account for 120 MPs. Congress is virtually decimated in these two states. It will require tremendous amount of dynamism. The question is if he can at this age take up such a great responsibility with the required dynamism and give a new look to the national party. He is certainly not a lightweight in politics, but filling the vacuum in the party, rejuvenate and reinvent Congress is not an easy task.