The Anatomy Of A Congress Split: Why History May Not Repeat Itself

Last Updated:November 18, 2025, 08:45 IST

For a split, the Congress needs another Indira Gandhi, who had the courage and the will to form her own party. Unfortunately, that space is missing

Now, the Gandhis are all powerful, despite Mallikarjun Kharge being the party president. Anyone who questions the Gandhis faces questions over their loyalty and motive. (PTI)

Is a split in the Congress possible? Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the prediction in his victory speech after the Bihar results were out. However, a split needs a lot of courage and the question remains if Congress leaders have the bravado—and the will—to engineer the move.

The Congress has seen more than 20 splits since Independence, but the two landmark ones were in 1969 and 1978. Both involved Indira Gandhi.

In 1969, the Congress saw massive infighting, which led to the big split. The result was formation of Congress(R) or the new Congress led by Indira Gandhi. This was the result of a power struggle between the old guard of the syndicate as it was called. They were not in sync with the policies, ideas and philosophy of Indira Gandhi, finding her many liberal ideas like nationalisation of banks and abolition of privy purses “too Leftist". Things came to a head over who should be the presidential candidate for the country. While the old guard wanted Sanjiva Reddy, Indira Gandhi backed VV Giri. Giri’s win was synonymous with Indira Gandhi’s expulsion from the party. And this is how Congress R was born.

The next big one was in 1978, post-Emergency and the crushing defeat of Indira Gandhi. She was squarely blamed for the crisis and facing huge attacks from within the party, Indira Gandhi quit and formed what she claimed was the real Congress—Congress (I). While the ‘I’ was dropped eventually, this is the Congress we now see.

After 1978, there have been several splits. However, these were not to form another Congress, but to form other regional parties like the NCP led by Sharad Pawar or the Trinamool Congress by Mamata Banerjee. None of them have staked claim to be the Congress. Though they charted their own course, ironically, they associated with the Congress later to support it in the government.

Now with the Bihar loss, and the prime minister predicting a Congress split, the chatter has begun yet again. But is a split possible?

The first issue is that a split requires courage and confidence. Indira Gandhi had both in 1969 and 1978. In both cases, she was sure that there would be people from the party who would walk out with her and help her strengthen the party. How many present-day leaders have this confidence? Who is that one leader who, if he/she walks out of the Congress, can even be successful to split it?

Even the “rebellion" of G-23 was not one to engineer a split. It was more to assert themselves and a fight for relevance within the party. But even that failed as many who raised the banner of ‘revolt’, like Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad, left the party. Some who stayed back have been co-opted or they accepted the Congress as it is. Some have slowly faded away.

Systematically, over the last few years, the Congress has not allowed any second power centre to emerge. The Gandhis are all powerful, despite Mallikarjun Kharge being the party president. Anyone who questions the Gandhis faces questions over their loyalty and motive. And there are almost none, or very few, who have the might to split the party and set up another Congress.

Yes, one can expect exodus or more exits like we saw earlier. But for a split, the Congress needs another Indira Gandhi. Unfortunately, that space is missing.

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