The mercurial and unpredictable Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seconded her. “This is a chance to have the country’s first Dalit Prime Minister,” he is reported to have claimed.

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Were Banerjee and Kejriwal proposing Kharge as prime minister in good faith, or were they politicking? There are many ambitious contenders within the INDIA bloc. Apart from Banerjee herself and even Kejriwal, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar is the perpetual jack-in-the-box whose prime ministerial ambitions pop up periodically. Media reports suggest that Nitish Kumar was “upset with some senior party leaders, including Lalan Singh, for not properly coordinating with INDIA bloc leaders about his national ambitions”. He has reportedly decided to remove JD (U) president Lalan Singh and take over the job himself. Gopal Mandal of JD (U) has derisively claimed, “Public does not know who ‘Kharge Pharge’ is. … The public knows Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar should become Prime Minister. He is popular all over India.”

Should the Opposition get the numbers to form a government these contenders know that the Congress will not back them. Therefore, proposing Kharge’s name seems like a gambit for getting Rahul Gandhi’s candidature out of the way. While the Gandhi scion may have encouraged the impression that he was not in the race for the top job, his candidature would invariably come up if the party got sufficient numbers to lead the post-electoral coalition.

Kharge was clearly embarrassed by the open endorsement of Banerjee and Kejriwal. He dismissed the sudden googly, reiterating that the first task was to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Later, he answered a question from the media, saying, “We will contest collectively to win a majority …After winning, our MPs will follow the democratic process (to elect the PM).”

The Opposition is quite frightened by the BJP’s landslide victory in the three north Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Will Kharge’s candidature as a Dalit prime minister help the Opposition consolidate the Dalit vote in its favour, as some suggest?

Might not this end up being as ineffective for attracting voters as was the demand for a caste census in the recently concluded state elections? It was meant to attract the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). However, the election results showed that it led to the consolidation of the BJP’s core upper caste constituency which was alienated by the Congress pivoting so openly towards OBC politics. Nor was BJP’s OBC constituency damaged. Subsequently, the BJP specifically chose an OBC as its chief minister in Madhya Pradesh, signalling its commitment to the backward caste constituency.

Umbrella parties with no fundamental commitment to OBC or Dalit politics are not known to have gained electorally from such opportunistic pivoting. Further, the proposal for a Dalit prime minister at this early stage could further consolidate the conservative upper caste votes in favour of the BJP.
 

Today, there may be far less resistance to a Dalit prime minister than earlier, when Babu Jagjivan Ram’s candidature was rejected as the Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate despite a majority of party MPs favouring him. This was led by no less than Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya J B Kripalani, both upper-caste politicians. Factors other than caste might have governed their choice of Morarji Desai, but today, there is unlikely to be any overwhelming resistance to it. Both the Congress and the BJP have given India Dalit presidents: K R Narayanan in 1997 and Ram Nath Kovind in 2017.

Apparently, Kharge’s candidature has also been discussed internally in the Congress. Some believe Rahul Gandhi may have no problem with an affable party loyalist like him. He has run the party with a steady hand, built effective bridges with the other Opposition parties, speaks half a dozen Indian languages with excellent proficiency in Hindi and has the inclusiveness to take everyone under the tent. There is also no question of his defying the party’s first family, the Gandhis. How likely is it then that Kharge could be to Rahul Gandhi what Manmohan Singh was to his mother, Sonia Gandhi?

Could the mutual trust and respect between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh be replicated in the Rahul Gandhi-Kharge relationship? Early indications can often be wrong, but they do not suggest it will be so easy.

Kharge and Rahul Gandhi did not seem to be on the same page at the Congress Working Committee meeting to discuss the party’s recent election debacles in North India. Kharge’s admission of mistakes made by the party apparently prompted Rahul Gandhi to interject and point out that he was a senior leader who had been given a free hand, virtually questioning his role. Kharge may not have liked the seniors, including him, being singled out. When Rahul Gandhi had a free hand as Congress president between 2017 and 2019, the party also lost elections.
 

If Rahul Gandhi indeed continues to position himself only as the party’s moral compass, then he might have to find someone else to do his bidding if the Congress is in a position to lead a post-election coalition government.

More importantly, if he wants to focus on the party’s revival, it is hardly the time to go off on another Bharat Jodo Yatra. He ought to be helping identify candidates and working out the party’s election strategy. These crucial tasks cannot be subcontracted to others. Now is not the time for walkathons but for action. He should take responsibility for electoral decisions and their implementation rather than questioning others about their role after another possible debacle.