Congress loses the opportunity to shed the image of ‘dynasty and puppet politics’.
NEW DELHI: Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi has committed the “second blunder” of her political career by making Mallikarjuna Kharge file his nomination paper for the party president poll, thanks to her advisors. It was in July 2012 when Sonia Gandhi had made the “first similar blunder” when Pranab Mukherjee was picked for the post of President of India instead of Dr Manmohan Singh.
It is believed that if Pranab had been appointed prime minister, the Congress would not have been in such a mess. But over 10 years later, Sonia Gandhi repeated the same blunder. The decision to pick Kharge does not augur well for the Congress which is facing existential crisis. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot would be a better candidate, claim observers. After the Rajasthan crisis, allowing Gehlot to have a free hand by the Gandhis would be an effective weapon to counter BJP’s allegation of “dynasty” and “puppet” politics against the grand old party ahead of 2024 polls. The BJP has already started saying that Kharge will be a remote-controlled president of the Congress. The issue of dynasty and puppet politics has harmed Congress considerably.
If Pranab had been appointed PM in 2012, the situation would have been different. The Gandhis do not want, in fact, to take any risk as they think that a politically sound leader at the helm can capture the entire organisation. People don’t understand why the Gandhi family is under such an impression.
Secondly, the coterie around the 10 Janpath is working in such a way that it does not allow the “real information” to reach Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The leaders in the coterie want to regulate the things as per their wish. That the Gandhi family has lost connection with various leaders and workers is attributable to the coterie of these leaders who have hardly any mass base. As a result, the party has been unable to understand the real politics of the country. The coterie tries to ensure that no leader having political prowess gets the top Congress post. So, Pranab was stopped from becoming PM, and Gehlot has now been prevented from becoming president of the party, thanks to this coterie.
The story from Gehlot agreeing to contest the presidential poll to finally opting out of the race after the Rajasthan political drama is very interesting in itself. It is obvious that Gehlot led from the front when Congress held demonstrations on the streets after the ED action. After the success of the 4 September Ramlila Maidan rally, Gehlot’s name for the presidential post was almost final.
The message was that Gandhis have persuaded him to contest the presidential poll, and that the decisions related to Rajasthan will be what Gehlot likes. But the politics underwent a sudden change after 10 September when Sachin Pilot, who once tried to be in the game of toppling the government, began to be projected by his faction as the new CM of Rajasthan. Surprisingly, the leader—Gehlot—who was being made president looked clueless! As a result, ‘the person’ whom the Gandhi family trusted the most till recently, was painted as “a villain”. However, Gehlot chose to be silent. He understood every political move of his opponents.
He was forced to apologise for the MLAs’ collective decision. He had to announce that he would not contest the presidential poll. After emerging from a meeting at 10, Janpath, Gehlot sent out a clear cut message that the opponents should now desist from doing what they are doing. He had made up his mind to quit all posts, but he decided not to do so amid the party’s worst-ever crisis.
By virtue of being by the side of the Gandhis no matter what, Gehlot in his 50-year long career emerged as a strong pillar of the Congress. The Gandhis always trusted him the most as well. Now the question is what after all his image was damaged like this. Pilot alone cannot do so. Some more brains may be behind all that happened in Jaipur.
Who may be behind creating bitterness between Gehlot and the Gandhis? However, after tendering an apology, Gehlot’s stature has grown all the more. It created public sympathy for the CM. Even the educated class is wondering why Gehlot was treated like this.
However, Gehlot has not changed his attitude. He was quite active when Kharge filed nomination. He backed Kharge as a candidate for the Congress presidential poll. He continued to woo the disgruntled leaders who were looking happy as well. Slogans were raised at the time of nomination, but the requisite enthusiasm was missing which would have been there if a Gandhi family member had filed the papers. Workers present at the headquarters were visibly disappointed.
Undoubtedly, Rahul Gandhi is apparently least bothered about the presidential poll process as he did not find even a few hours to be present at the time of nomination. The message is that he is not giving any importance to the presidential post. Rahul Gandhi’s absence is a signal that the Gandhi scion is going to be the real boss no matter who occupies the top chair.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is the general secretary of the party, did not also come to the office at the time of nomination. It is said she herself wanted to become president. But Sonia Gandhi did not agree. The message is loud and clear that the leader occupying the highest organisational chair will be no more than a decorative head.
The only happy lot is that of advisors of Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi who did not want any high profile leader having political acumen to be at the helm. They know that the new incumbent will have to go via coterie to meet the real high command. The Rajasthan political drama, which was the coterie’s creation, ultimately benefited the members of this group. They will continue to be more powerful than the president.
The new president will be unable to implement even a single resolve in the Udaipur declarations. Nothing new would happen in the party.
The present team is more interested in the Bharat Jodo Yatra which is an untimely exercise. The coterie is in fact serving its own interests no matter whether the party loses or wins. The only concern of the group is that no politically savvy person gets closer to the Gandhis. It was these leaders who had advised Rahul Gandhi to step down as President after the 2019 poll debacle. The party’s miserable condition is for everyone to see.