Pressure politics will be unacceptable; Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra will be in more commanding positions.
New Delhi: Now, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be in a commanding position in the Congress. What they wish will happen in the party. The leaders who ignore their command will be in trouble.
This was confirmed during the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday. A clear message was given during the CWC meeting that the party will run according to the wish of Rahul Gandhi. Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi gave a clear instruction to the disgruntled leaders of G-23 that she is the full-time president of the party. She also told them to speak their mind out only on proper party forum and not through the media.
The organizational elections will take place in September next year only when the Gujarat elections will be taking place. It will be then that the party will get a new president. The Congress will continue to function like before. The message is loud and clear that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will not yield to any pressure now. Every leader is bound to obey what the Gandhi scion says.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have already started an overhaul from Punjab. This experiment will continue in future too. State-wise decisions will be taken in due course of time. The priority is to win Punjab and Uttarakhand which are going to polls in February-March, along with three other states. In UP, the Congress will go it alone in order to try and improve its prospects there. Similarly, the Congress wants BJP to lose in electoral battle of Manipur and Goa. For this, leaders will be given responsibility of different states.
According to sources, disgruntled leaders tried to raise some questions during the CWC meeting, but they were not allowed to dominate the parley. The dissenters were against the meeting of an extended CWC, but party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi had already planned to have a meeting with all the three chief ministers in attendance. They did not let the dissidents ventilate their views that much.
However, the strategists whom Rahul Gandhi trusts keep on making mistakes. Last year in the same month, these strategists had fixed the dates for the programme, clashing with the festivals, following which the entire schedule had to be changed. This year too, they organized CWC meeting just a day after Dussehra. This caused inconvenience to the leaders as they had reach Delhi on Dussehra itself. But now, the leaders are not allowed to raise questions in Congress. The key strategists of the new Congress are K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jitendra Singh, Ajay Maken and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Even if the dissenters raise any protest against these leaders, they will not be lent any hearing. While addressing the meeting, Sonia Gandhi put the stamp of approval on the strategy of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. It was Rahul Gandhi who finalised Rajya Sabha ticket from Punjab and Maharashtra, giving a clear message that those raising questions have no place in the party. Amarinder Singh had to pay a heavy price for expressing anger against Navjot Singh Sidhu in a meeting of CWC earlier. When Sidhu started asserting himself in an aggressive manner after change of guard, he was asked to do what the high command asks him to.
Keeping aside heavyweights, Rahul Gandhi gave ticket to Rajni Patil for Rajya Sabha. This was definitely a message to disgruntled leaders. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have chosen to go ahead on their own, with no leader around. The Gandhi scion seems to have decided to take tough action, and if this does not work, then he may change his style. This is the reason why Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is leading from the front all alone in UP. She went to Lakhimpur Kheri with no leader accompanying her. Only Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra appeared before the press after meeting the President.
Observers consider it to be a good effort on the part of the Gandhi scion, but the question is whether this will impress voters.
Success in electoral battle continues to be a challenge for the both the brother and sister. What gives the duo worrying time is the series of defeats that Congress faced since 2014. The Congress even lost Puducherry. The party also lost MP. Its fate in Punjab will be decided by March. Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are the Congress ruled states where the high command trusts the chief ministers.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who has been defending the Gandhi family, was active again in Saturday meeting. In the meeting, the leaders criticized the government for its alleged failure on farmers, price rise and other issues. Organisational polls were deferred due to five state elections. Disgruntled leaders were allowed to speak briefly only. Meanwhile, in another significant development, several leaders, including Ashok Gehlot, urged Rahul Gandhi to accept the post of party president.