The Congress party is set to hold its national convention on April 8 and 9 in Ahmedabad. About 2,000 All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates from across the country, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and K C Venugopal, will arrive in Gujarat for the convention.

Speeches will be held, resolutions will be passed, and two days of political discourse will ensue. All of this is to be expected, but the real question is whether this 2025 convention can do what the sessions held on the banks of the Sabarmati River in 1902 and 1921 once did—guide the nation in a new direction amid the challenges of their time. Can this gathering, if not for the country, at least give its workers a clear direction? Will it be successful in reviving the nearly lifeless state of the Congress in Gujarat?

Back in 1985, the Congress created a record by winning 149 out of 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly. Today, in 2025, the party doesn’t even have enough members to officially qualify as the opposition. 

Since 1990, the Congress has lost the strength to form a government on its own. It temporarily benefited from alliances with Chimanbhai Patel’s Gujarat Janata Dal and later with Shankarsinh Vaghela’s RJP, but these proved to be short-lived experiments.

Since 1998, the Congress has had no real taste of power in Gujarat—a widely known fact. The party did win 76 seats in the 2017 election, but that was largely due to the Patidar reservation agitation. By 2022, it was back to square one, and defections only deepened its troubles.

People often wonder—how did this happen? But the national and state-level Congress leadership seems uninterested in asking such questions. If they had been introspective, the current state of affairs might have been averted.

Today, the leaders within the Gujarat Congress belong more to internal factions than to the party itself. None possess the stature or strength to lead the entire state. They are merely symbolic figures, propped up by central leadership in Delhi. The biggest flaw is that these leaders have no pulse on public sentiment. That’s why, despite issues like fear, hunger, corruption, unemployment, poor healthcare and education, Dalit and Adivasi oppression, women’s issues, and labour exploitation, not a single leader actively connects with the people.

Those holding official positions focus solely on preserving them, making strategic moves to secure their circles. Worse yet, they maintain cosy relationships with ruling authorities and bureaucrats to keep their political shops running.

Even today, roughly 30% of the electorate—mainly in rural areas—continues to support Congress. There is still some hopeful connection. But sadly, the leaders seem to have turned a blind eye. Much like their BJP counterparts, they too seem stuck in political mire.

A political analyst in Gujarat commented, “Even the most advanced medical care cannot revive a patient who has lost the will to live.” The same is true for the Gujarat Congress. Thus, the upcoming convention on the Sabarmati might just be another ‘destination’ event.

In 1924, Mahatma Gandhi led the Belgaum session and truly understood the pulse of the people, guiding the nation. A hundred years later, today’s Congress leaders—despite sharing his surname—are nowhere near capable of doing the same, even for Gujarat, let alone the country. 

While the Congress may challenge the BJP in its so-called ‘Gujarat Model’ by hosting a convention, the real question is whether it can use this platform to transform itself into a people-centric organisation.