Media and Congress workers are claiming that she would bring back the Indira era of a charming but decisive leadership.
NEW DELHI: Those who were in any doubt as to the impact of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s decision to join active politics, need only to look at the news cycle following the announcement. For the first time since Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in May 2014, an Opposition leader was given such extensive coverage in the media. Even the fact that the PM inaugurated a museum in honour of Subas Chandra Bose only managed a mention in two channels, while the most of the media went into a frenzy debating the pros and cons of “Being Priyanka”.
Of course the BJP put up a tough face and claimed that her sudden entry only highlighted the failure of Rahul Gandhi to make an impact. It could not be more wrong. If anything, Priyanka’s debut has been timed when her elder brother and the Congress president is firmly in the saddle. He has just led the party to a win in three Hindi heartland states. During the one year he has been in president, he has also firmly consolidated his hold over the party. Earlier, it was claimed that the old guard within the Congress preferred Priyanka over Rahul; but during his Presidentship Rahul has gone out of his way to accommodate the older guard, sometimes at the cost of the GenNext, as is what happened in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan recently. Hence, Priyanka is not being brought in to placate any faction within the party. She has a much larger role to play.
Interestingly, most Nehru-Gandhi debuts have been soft landings, where they are given ancillary roles such as charge of the frontal organisations and youth wings before being brought into mainstream politics. As a young girl, Indira Gandhi had her “vanar sena” (monkey brigade group of kids who carried out revolutionary activities against British colonial rule), Sanjay Gandhi built his team via the youth wings, while Rajiv Gandhi was given charge of the 1982 Asian Games. His son, Rahul also was first made general secretary of the youth wings.
But for Priyanka, there are no soft-landings. True, she has not been given charge of an entire state, but eastern Uttar Pradesh is too politically volatile a corner to be under-estimated. This is not just where the Congress bastions lie, but also where Prime Minister Modi’s constituency, Varanasi is situated. In other words, without making it official, we can expect a Priyanka vs Modi face-off in the coming general elections. The BJP for its part will try and make this a Smriti Irani vs Priyanka battle, but the Congress has made it clear that this is not a game they are going to play. The Congress spokespersons were asked to ignore Irani’s comments on Priyanka’s induction (Irani called it an admission of Rahul Gandhi’s failure) and the Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev tweeted that “Poor lady (Irani) is fighting for relevance. Pl ignore her.” In an age of personality contests, the Congress is determined to answer the BJP’s “Modi vs Who?” jibe with Priyanka, without making it a formal contest. If anyone can pull off this contradiction, it is Indira Gandhi’s granddaughter.
With Priyanka’s entry, there is a message also for the Mahagathbandan allies, the SP, the BSP and the RLD who have left the Congress out of their state level alliance. “The Congress will play on the front foot in all the states,” said a satisfied Rahul Gandhi after announcing his sister’s induction as general secretary. Indeed there is speculation as to whether Priyanka’s role will harm the BJP more, or will it cut into the anti-BJP vote and end up hurting the Mahagathbandan. One thing however is certain—morale is certainly up for the Congress cadres who are now dreaming of winning as many as 15 to 20 seats from this region (Awadh has 18 Assembly seats and Poorvanchal 21). In fact, some Congress leaders claim that this was one of the main reasons behind expediting Priyanka’s entry into politics and giving her the organisational charge of eastern UP. Had the Congress been part of the Mahagathbandan then the timing, and her role, would have been different.
So then, what will be Priyanka’s role? Earlier the speculation was that Priyanka would be contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli in place of her mother Sonia Gandhi. That plan may well still hold. However, Rahul Gandhi did make an interesting comment from Amethi when he was reacting to Priyanka’s induction. He told the media that “the next state CM will be from here”. This has given rise to speculation as to whether the Congress will revive the Prashant Kishor formula for the 2017 polls. For at the time Kishor was advising the Congress and he had suggested a “larger” role for Priyanka at the state level. That plan was nixed when the party went in for an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav. However, Congress strategists do agree on one thing—for the party to revive in Uttar Pradesh it would need to project a strong, charismatic face as CM. And who better than a Nehru-Gandhi to revive the party morale? In 2012, Digvijaya Singh had pushed for Rahul to take this job, but his suggestion did not get much traction.
While the media and Congress workers are going overboard about Priyanka’s induction, claiming that she would bring back the Indira era of a charming but decisive leadership, it would be interesting to see Priyanka’s own take on this. In her earlier interviews whenever asked about the comparison to her grandmother, Priyanka had pointed out that while she looks more like Indira Gandhi, it was Rahul who had more of her character traits, while she favoured her father.
In the one year he has assumed the Congress president’s office, Rahul has shown some of his grandmother’s decisiveness, even a touch of her ruthlessness such as dealing with his father’s old friend Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was suspended for speaking out of turn during the Gujarat campaign. Later the suspension was revoked at his mother’s behest. Priyanka, on the other hand, seems to favour a more conciliatory approach. When Rahul dropped some of the old guard from the CWC such as Janardan Dwivedi and Digvijaya Singh, it was Priyanka who reached out to placate them. Again, it was Priyanka who was the first to forgive her father’ killers, even visiting Nalini in Vellore jail in 2008. Later in an interview to the Hindu Nalini claimed that Priyanka reportedly asked her “My father was a good person. He was very soft. Why did you do this? Whatever was the reason, it could have been resolved with dialogue” (September 2016). Later, Rahul too has adopted a conciliatory attitude towards his father’s killers.
Until now, Priyanka’s support for her brother has been from the sidelines. Working behind the scenes in the family pocket boroughs of Amethi-Rae Bareli and Sultanpur, ensuring that arrangements were in place for CWC meetings to be presided over by her brother, reaching out to sulking Congress leaders or even waiting outside the range of TV cameras with a hug after a particularly disappointing poll result. It was only after the three state election wins that we saw her step out from the shadows as she was seen entering Rahul’s residence during the face-off between the Old Guard and GenNext in the race for Chief Ministership. But now, she will firmly claim her own share of the limelight—with her brother’s blessings, for there is no doubt that the timing of her political debut benefits Rahul more than it does Priyanka herself.