Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Malviya on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Indian National Congress, accusing the party of treating its own president, Mallikarjun Kharge, as a ceremonial figurehead while real authority remains concentrated within the Gandhi family. The trigger was Kharge's reported statement that Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi would resolve the ongoing factional feud in Karnataka Congress between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Shivkumar.

The Charge Against Congress

Malviya, who heads the BJP's National Information and Technology Department, said Kharge's public declaration amounted to an admission that the Congress president holds no independent decision-making power. 'Kharge's statement today was not just politically embarrassing. It was an unfiltered glimpse into the feudal culture of the Congress party,' Malviya said.

In a post on X, Malviya wrote: 'The Congress lectures the country on social justice, but within its own structure, Dalit leaders are too often treated as placeholders, shields, or electoral mascots, never as independent centres of power.'

Historical Pattern Alleged by BJP

The BJP leader argued the pattern predates the current leadership, pointing to the UPA years. 'Even during the UPA years, Dalit faces were elevated symbolically while all consequential political and organisational power remained concentrated within the coterie around the Gandhis,' he said.

Malviya cited specific instances he characterised as Congress fielding Dalit leaders as 'sacrificial candidates.' He named former Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, whom he claimed was fielded in 'impossible electoral situations and sidelined when power equations were settled.' He also pointed to Meira Kumar, who was made the Congress-backed presidential candidate in 2017 in a contest the party reportedly knew it would lose. In Karnataka itself, Malviya alleged, the Congress high command 'repeatedly chose Gandhi family loyalists over Kharge for real authority' despite his decades of experience.

The Karnataka Congress Feud as Flashpoint

The immediate context is an intensifying internal dispute within the Karnataka Congress government. The rivalry between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D.K. Shivkumar over the state's leadership has been a recurring source of tension since the party's 2023 assembly election victory. Kharge's reported deference to Rahul Gandhi on the matter has now drawn the BJP into the intra-party dispute, using it as a lens to question the Congress's stated commitment to Dalit empowerment.

Notably, this is not the first time the BJP has sought to drive a wedge between the Congress's Dalit leadership and the Gandhi family's perceived dominance of the party apparatus.

Congress Yet to Respond

As of the time of this report, the Congress had not issued a formal response to Malviya's allegations. The party has historically pushed back against such charges by citing Kharge's elevation to the party presidency — a post the Gandhi family itself does not hold — as evidence of genuine power-sharing. Whether Kharge or other Congress leaders will formally rebut the claims remains to be seen.