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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Congress’ solo path for ‘ideological survival’

Mumbai: The Congress party’s decision to contest the forthcoming BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections independently is being viewed as an attempt to reclaim its ideological space among the public and restore credibility within its cadre, senior leaders indicated. The announcement - made by AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala alongside state president Harshwardhan Sapkal and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad - did not trigger a backlash from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi...

Congress’ solo path for ‘ideological survival’

Mumbai: The Congress party’s decision to contest the forthcoming BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections independently is being viewed as an attempt to reclaim its ideological space among the public and restore credibility within its cadre, senior leaders indicated. The announcement - made by AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala alongside state president Harshwardhan Sapkal and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad - did not trigger a backlash from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners, the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT). According to Congress insiders, the move is the outcome of more than a year of intense internal consultations following the party’ dismal performance in the 2024 Assembly elections, belying huge expectations. A broad consensus reportedly emerged that the party should chart a “lone-wolf” course to safeguard the core ideals of Congress, turning140-years-old, next month. State and Mumbai-level Congress leaders, speaking off the record, said that although the party gained momentum in the 2019 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was frequently constrained by alliance compulsions. Several MVA partners, they claimed, remained unyielding on larger ideological and political issues. “The Congress had to compromise repeatedly and soften its position, but endured it as part of ‘alliance dharma’. Others did not reciprocate in the same spirit. They made unilateral announcements and declared candidates or policies without consensus,” a senior state leader remarked. Avoid liabilities He added that some alliance-backed candidates later proved to be liabilities. Many either lost narrowly or, even after winning with the support of Congress workers, defected to Mahayuti constituents - the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, or the Nationalist Congress Party. “More than five dozen such desertions have taken place so far, which is unethical, backstabbing the voters and a waste of all our efforts,” he rued. A Mumbai office-bearer elaborated that in certain constituencies, Congress workers effectively propelled weak allied candidates through the campaign. “Our assessment is that post-split, some partners have alienated their grassroots base, especially in the mofussil regions. They increasingly rely on Congress workers. This is causing disillusionment among our cadre, who see deserving leaders being sidelined and organisational growth stagnating,” he said. Chennithala’s declaration on Saturday was unambiguous: “We will contest all 227 seats independently in the BMC polls. This is the demand of our leaders and workers - to go alone in the civic elections.” Gaikwad added that the Congress is a “cultured and respectable party” that cannot ally with just anyone—a subtle reference to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had earlier targeted North Indians and other communities and is now bidding for an electoral arrangement with the SS(UBT). Both state and city leaders reiterated that barring the BMC elections - where the Congress will take the ‘ekla chalo’ route - the MVA alliance remains intact. This is despite the sharp criticism recently levelled at the Congress by senior SS(UBT) leader Ambadas Danve following the Bihar results. “We are confident that secular-minded voters will support the Congress' fight against the BJP-RSS in local body elections. We welcome backing from like-minded parties and hope to finalize understandings with some soon,” a state functionary hinted. Meanwhile, Chennithala’s firm stance has triggered speculation in political circles about whether the Congress’ informal ‘black-sheep' policy vis-a-vis certain parties will extend beyond the BMC polls.

Seventeen and Overthinking

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At seventeen, most people are still figuring out which tracks to follow in life; some, like me, are beginning to wonder if the tracks we have chosen will ever get us anywhere worth going. For the past few weeks, I have been quietly engulfed by a kind of quarter-life crisis, questioning not just my past decisions but the very architecture of the life I hope to lead. Have I lived enough? Have I made choices that matter? Will the ambitions I harbour today translate into the life I desire tomorrow?


It is, paradoxically, the minor and the mundane that often precipitate the largest self-examinations. Should I invest in a new keyboard for my tablet, whose lag makes even a simple sentence take two minutes to type, or cling to the current one because it is beautiful and somewhat costly? Like so many teenagers, I am caught at a crossroads between practicality and desire, between what brings immediate pleasure and what promises long-term stability.


I have always thought of myself as certain, unusually so. From a young age, I knew what I wanted: the career I would pursue, the life I would lead. I had measured my future in terms of fulfilment and happiness rather than earnings or independence. Yet, now that I weigh the realities of ambition against practicalities, the certainty I once prized feels suddenly brittle. What if the choices I have planned will not suffice for my relentless ambitions? What if I am not as prepared as I assumed?


The transition into 12th grade has crystallised these anxieties. Compared with the punishing regimen of 10th grade - Sunday classes, four sample papers a day, two hours of sleep for a month - life now seems deceptively easier: six or seven hours of sleep, fewer formal obligations. Yet the stakes feel infinitely higher. Failure is no longer an abstract threat; it is a looming reality capable of dismantling everything I have built. The soundtrack of adolescence has shifted: gone is the irreverent, carefree Teenage Dirtbag; in its place plays a more sobering, inexorable tune of adult expectation.


In this uncertainty, memory becomes a kind of museum in which I relive a childhood only partially experienced. I did not ride motorbikes through the night with friends, linger by lakesides, or chase the sort of reckless freedom that seems to define youth. I lived, but cautiously, interspersing teenage impulses with adult restraint. I was always the ‘good kid,’ the ‘mature’ one, and now the regret is sharp: I have travelled too far along the road of responsibility to simply return to the chaos of youthful exuberance. I watch younger teenagers embrace recklessness with abandon and feel an ache at my own past restraint.


The tension is existential. Who, or what, is responsible for this overachievement? The city that shaped me, the expectations of others, or my own relentless self-discipline? I have spent most of my seventeen years ‘adulting’ when I need not have, fearful of mediocrity and failure, cautious of average outcomes and disappointment. Yet the paradox is that the tools of adolescence, the impulses, desires and creative naïveté remain unmastered. I am a young adult in circumstance but still a teenager in instinct.


Mumbai, however, has revealed the contours of my authentic self. The city did not so much change me as unlock me. In this urban anonymity, where expectations are few and connections selective, I have discovered dimensions of my personality that had lain dormant: spontaneity, audacity, and an unvarnished authenticity that had no space in my hometown. Moving was not life-changing; it was life-revealing.


Yet the reality of adulthood is humbling. I once imagined it as elegant and empowering, a natural extension of the ‘perfect’ self I tried to cultivate. Instead, it is messy, unrelenting, and deeply unsettling. It demands responsibility, foresight, and endurance I am not sure I am prepared to offer. Even with newfound freedom and clarity, the prospect of paying bills, filing taxes, voting responsibly, or answering to superiors feels daunting. The hurricane of adult life is already swirling around me, and I am not yet ready to step fully into it.


Seventeen, then, is a liminal age: neither adolescent nor fully adult. It is a space of reflection, of reckoning, and of tentative liberation. For now, all I can do is navigate this in-between, hoping to preserve both the reckless wonder of youth and the emerging responsibility of my coming years.


Alas, such is life.


(The author is a student of St. Xavier College, Mumbai.)

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