Congress System and It’s breakdown

After independence and before 1967, the Congress was in a dominant position and this period normally referred as a “Congress Dominated System” or “Congress System”. Congress was a dominant force under the leadership of a majestic personality like Nehru and formed governments in centre and in most of the states. After the demise of Nehru, the Congress System started breaking up because of the fights between internal factions and power ambitions. This essay is an attempt to study the reasons behind break down of the congress system.

Breakdown of Congress System
Congress dominance started crumbling from the mid of 1960s. Fourth general election held in 1967 saw a fall in congress vote share and seats. The party system which emerged from this general election and till 1989 can be termed as a bipolar system where congress was facing a united opposition in almost all the states. This period also witnessed making of many coalition governments in the states where opposition posed a united front to keep congress out of power. One point can be noted here is that the votes of the congress party declined much more drastically in the assembly elections than in parliamentary elections. Following are some of the reasons which can be identified for the breakdown of the Congress systemUnited Opposition: Indian electoral system is a “First past the post” system or in India the candidate who gets the maximum vote wins. Congress never secured more that 50% votes in any of the elections thus more people were voting against it rather in favour of it. Congress candidate were able to win the elections because of the fragmentation of votes in opposition parties which were in large in numbers. Post 1967 phase, at least for the time being saw a unity in opposition forces because of their anti congress ideology and thus caused defeat for congress in many states. Factionalism in Congress: in 1969, Congress saw a split in two groups, the one lead by Indira Gandhi and other by the Morarji Desai and other syndicate leaders. These factionalism and internal power rivalries weakened the party internally. To consolidate her power, Indira Gandhi almost started moving the party toward a dictatorial system and gradually striped off from congress whatever inner democracy it was left with. This gave

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rise to a culture of patronage politics and corrupt behaviour which ultimately lead to the people disenchantment with congress and her subsequent defeat in state elections.

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Heavy handedness of Party High Command: In 70s, Congress witnessed a consolidation of power in the central functionaries of party or also known as Party High Command. Indira Gandhi started a culture of nominated Chief Ministers at the state level and tried to crush the emerging state leadership to maintain her grip on state politics and avoid rival power centres. This caused a high level of resentment in the local leaders and they started moving out of congress and either formed their own parties or joined opposition parties which ultimately lead to the decline in congress support base. Rise of Identity politics and regional parties based on caste: In the 80s, many states specially the states of North India witnessed a growth in regional caste consciousness and formation of regional parties based on caste lines. People from backward castes specially Dalits were the main support base of congress previously. After the formation of parties like Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and various factions of Janata Dal, this vote bank started moving toward these regional parties. Congress also started losing Muslim Vote Bank. All these factors caused decline in vote share of Congress and its subsequent defeat.

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It can be concluded from the above discussion that there were both internal and external factors responsible for the decline in Congress System after the demise of Nehru and specially after 1969. Congress was never a party driven by ideology but it was more like a platform were people from different ideologies converge and formed a united force. Just after the independence, rivalries and differences of opinion were kept at a low because of the towering personality of Nehru and his own style of working. But after his death and after the rise of Indira Gandhi on the scene, these rivalries mixed with power ambitions started coming in out. This causes divisions in the party and its gradual weakening. It also lead to a fear of losing power in Indira Gandhi and her subsequent consolidation of power gave rise to a sycophant culture and further weakening of the system. Rise of caste politics in 80s further declined the grip of power from the Congress fold. Congress has not come out from this phase even today and struggling to establish itself back in state politics of many big states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc.