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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.

The People Paradox: When Teams Stop Behaving Like Families

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Over the next few weeks, I’ll explore the invisible side of growth: people.

Not the spreadsheets, not the strategy decks … but the quiet human mechanics that decide whether a company truly scales or quietly stalls. These essays won’t offer full-stop solutions. They’re observations, patterns, lived confessions from years of watching teams evolve and drift. If the Cognitive Load Trap series exposed how systems overload the mind, this series turns the lens outward to the unpredictable world of human behavior inside those systems.


The Drift

Every company that grows begins with warmth. A handful of people sitting too close, finishing sentences, staying late not because they must but because the dream feels shared. Someone jokes, “We’re like a family here,” and everyone nods, half-embarrassed, half-proud.


But somewhere between the fifteenth hire and the fiftieth, something shifts. Deadlines replace dinners. Updates replace conversations. The same word ‘family’ starts to sound like a promise the company can’t keep. No one betrays anyone. The drift is quieter than that.


The myth

The idea of family culture was born in a world where families themselves were predictable. Fathers, sons, cousins worked together, argued together, retired together.


Loyalty was inherited. Conflict was seasonal, not existential. That world is gone.


Today’s families are nuclear, migratory, practical. We love each other, but we also outgrow each other’s dreams. Affection no longer guarantees alignment. Yet many businesses still chase that nostalgia … trying to freeze a vintage idea of togetherness in a generation that prizes autonomy.


The result is confusion on both sides: leaders wondering why loyalty feels fragile, and teams wondering why care comes wrapped in control.


New Reality

Workplaces today are emotional hybrids. People want safety and freedom, mentorship and mobility, structure and space. They join for purpose, stay for momentum, and leave when growth feels asymmetrical. It isn’t disloyalty. It’s evolution.


The same independence that makes people ambitious also makes them transient. And so, every growing business faces the same paradox:


When Care Turns into Control

At one design firm … let’s call it The Workshop … the founder still spoke the language of family. “We take care of our own,” he’d say proudly. But for younger managers, the word felt loaded. It meant unpaid overtime, emotional policing, and decisions made “for your own good.”


They didn’t want to be his children. They wanted to be his colleagues. When one senior designer resigned, her note said, “I didn’t leave because I stopped caring. I left because caring here meant never being free.” That line stayed with me. Because that’s what happens when affection outlives alignment.


Hidden Cost

Leaders who cling to the old family metaphor unknowingly create two kinds of fatigue:

  1. Emotional fatigue: constant closeness leaves no room for honest distance.

  2. Cultural fatigue: every disagreement feels personal instead of professional.


The more a company insists on being a family, the harder it becomes to have the conversations real families avoid … about accountability, mismatch, and change.


Family to Tribe

Maybe it’s time to retire the word. A company isn’t a family anymore. It’s a tribe, a moving formation of people who travel together while their purposes align. Tribes evolve. Members join, contribute, move on, sometimes return. What keeps a tribe alive isn’t blood; it’s direction.


The leader’s role isn’t to hold everyone forever. It’s to make the journey worth staying for.


Final Reflection

The People Paradox isn’t about blame. It’s about seeing that modern humans no longer fit inside old metaphors. Teams aren’t families. They’re living ecosystems … breathing, rotating, constantly renegotiating why they stay. And that’s not decline. That’s evolution.


(The writer is Co-founder at PPS Consulting. He helps growth-stage leaders design systems where people and performance evolve together. Views personal.)

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