Months of speculation about a looming crisis in the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Party (NPCC) came out in the open recently when this newspaper reported on the demand calling for a thorough revamp of the party organization. Besides this, the other voice emerging is that former Chief Minister and present Goa Governor SC Jamir return home to lead the Congress party for the forthcoming elections. This was made known by several Congressmen but many of them expressed difficulty in taking a public stand except for a few like former Minister Dr Kakheto Zhimomi who openly stated that there are differences on the leadership issue though they do not want to show it. Dr Zhimomi even went to the extent of saying that there are no ‘leaders’ in the party at the moment and that unless Goa Governor, SC Jamir, returns to state politics then there is no chance for the Congress party winning in the coming state general elections.
Interestingly, the NPCC President during a tour to Phek with AICC Secretary Ranjit Thomas had advised party leaders not to listen to rumors. He was obviously referring to some of the news report mentioned above. Whether it is out of sheer ignorance or not, the NPCC must also take into account the petition made by the DCC (I) Mon to the visiting AICC Secretary demanding the recall of SC Jamir as party leader. If such a petition whether officially or otherwise had been made, what rumor is the NPCC President referring to? And if at all some of the news report carried by this news paper cannot be corroborated, then it is left to the wisdom of the NPCC to ignore them and get ahead with the task of preparing the party in the best way it thinks, so that at least it has the organizational strength to pose a serious challenge to the ruling NPF party.
From the independent assessment of this column, the State Congress clearly appears to be failing in projecting a single political personality who can, not only lead the party from the front like Neiphiu Rio for the NPF but also someone who can keep the party together and one who is able to garner broad based support within the party organization. Failure to address the leadership issue will cost the party dearly in the coming polls. If at all the Congress is serious about coming back to power, as claimed by the AICC Secretary and the CLP Leader recently, it will require more than just relying on the Congress led UPA Government in the Centre. More importantly, the party will be required to go into retrospection mode and come out with some bold thinking. It is not going to be how well Congress President Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh campaign for the party in Nagaland but rather how strong the party is at home. Nothing illustrates this better than the recent UP elections and the dismal performance of the Congress State unit there. At the end even Sonia blamed the party organization for the dismal performance in UP despite Rahul Gandhi leading the poll campaign. Leaving aside the denial mode of the present State Congress leadership, at least hopefully, the AICC Secretary Ranjit Thomas will have greater political wisdom to see the writing on the walls.
