The new MPCC chief faces an uphill battle in a state where his party is gasping for relevance.
Once the fulcrum of the state’s politics, the Congress in Maharashtra is now an institution in its final stages of decay. Its steady decline, from a dominant force to an also-ran, has been a slow-motion train wreck. The party won just 16 of 288 seats in the 2024 Assembly polls. Against this bleak backdrop, the appointment of Harshwardhan Sapkal as the new Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president feels like a desperate gamble in an attempt to inject fresh energy into a party whose pulse is barely detectable.
Sapkal, a grassroots leader from Buldhana, is no stranger to political adversity. He has built his career from the ground up, eschewing the dynastic politics that have long plagued the Congress. Yet, his appointment comes with a mix of skepticism and faint hope. Can a relatively low-profile leader, however earnest, resurrect a party that has spent the past decade being outmaneuvered, out-funded and out-campaigned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?
Resuscitating the Congress in Maharashtra will require more than just goodwill. The party’s organizational structure has collapsed, its local leadership is fractured, and its workers, once its biggest strength, have been demoralized by years of neglect. Sapkal must restore a sense of purpose within the ranks. He needs to engage with party workers across districts, resolve factional disputes, and rebuild the Congress’s grassroots network. His humble, people-driven leadership style may help, but he must also prove he has the political acumen to navigate the treacherous waters of Maharashtra’s electoral battlefield.
Complicating matters is the caste arithmetic that defines Maharashtra’s politics. Sapkal, a Maratha, takes charge at a time when the community’s demands for reservations and political representation are growing louder. Congress has sought to balance this equation by appointing Vijay Wadettiwar, an OBC leader, as its legislative head. But the challenge for Sapkal will be to move beyond identity politics and offer a vision that unites rather than divides. He insists that his leadership will prioritize constitutional values over caste-based calculations. That may be an admirable goal, but Maharashtra’s history suggests that elections are rarely won on lofty ideals alone.
While Sapkal works to rebuild his party, he must also contend with the unrelenting dominance of the BJP. Under Devendra Fadnavis, the party has entrenched itself in the state’s power structures, combining a formidable electoral machine with a well-oiled propaganda network. The BJP has mastered the art of defining political narratives, often leaving the opposition scrambling to react. If Congress wants to stay relevant, it cannot afford to merely criticize the ruling party; it must present a compelling alternative. Farmer distress, unemployment, inflation and the erosion of local governance offer potential avenues for attack, but without a cohesive message, these issues will remain talking points rather than rallying cries.
The Congress is also part of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), its uneasy alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP). While the coalition briefly dislodged the BJP from power in 2019, it has since been marred by defections, internal squabbles and shifting loyalties. Sapkal must decide whether Congress should assert itself as a central player in this opposition bloc or resign itself to being a junior partner. A fractured opposition will only benefit the BJP, but keeping the alliance intact requires negotiation skills that Sapkal has yet to prove.
Even if he manages to counter the BJP and strengthen the alliance, Sapkal must still confront the internal contradictions within his own party. Congress has long been plagued by factionalism, and not everyone is convinced that Sapkal is the right man for the job. Senior leaders view him as inexperienced, while some believe his rise threatens the established order. If he hopes to unify the party, he must engage in transparent decision-making, ensure that all factions feel represented, and avoid the trap of favoring one group over another. The party has suffered enough from infighting. Another schism could well be fatal.
Beyond party dynamics, Congress must also rethink how it engages with voters. For too long, it has relied on nostalgia, on the memory of a time when it was the natural party of governance in Maharashtra. That era is gone. The electorate has changed, and so have their expectations. To connect with younger voters, the party needs to modernize its messaging and strengthen its digital presence. While the BJP dominates social media and traditional media alike, Congress remains reactive, often struggling to control its own narrative. A more aggressive media strategy, one that clearly articulates the party’s positions and counters misinformation, is essential if it hopes to remain in the conversation.
Sapkal’s appointment as MPCC chief is both an opportunity and a test. He represents a break from the party’s usual top-down leadership model, but that alone won’t be enough. The road to revival is long, and it is filled with obstacles - organizational decay, caste complexities, a dominant BJP, a fragile opposition alliance and a skeptical electorate. To succeed, he must prove he is not just a symbolic choice but a leader with a plan. If he fails, Maharashtra Congress may slip further into irrelevance, and the BJP’s dominance will remain unchallenged. If he succeeds, he may just pull off the impossible feat of breathing life into a party that many have already written off.
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