Rahul Gandhi may come back as Congress President
NEW DELHI : If sources are believed, after almost 7 months of sabbatical, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is all set to once again assume the mantle of Presidentship of the oldest political party of India.
Rahul , former Congress president, is all set for his return as Congress chief less than six months after he quit the same job, taking moral responsibility for the party’s giant thud in the general election. The Rahul re-run, which in the sycophantic Congress will be akin to the second coming of RG, is no surprise. Sonia Gandhi, who took over from her son as interim Congress president, has been clear that she’s just filling in for RG.
Plans are reportedly underway to reinstate him back to the position of Congress president as the Gandhi scion launched a blistering attack against the BJP in Jaipur today.
“The Congress president is expected to take a call on some of the proposed changes in the coming weeks,” a party source said.
However, Rahul’s trenchant criticism of the saffron party was filled with the same old trite assertions and worn-out accusations that were manifestly rejected by the people in the 2019 General elections.
The Congress is mulling a major organisational reshuffle amid the buzz that Rahul Gandhi may come back as party chief. According to party sources, proposals for the appointment of new in-charges and changes in the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) in about a dozen states have been sent to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi. Changes are expected to be announced in the next few days, they added.
The states and Union Territories on the cards for organisational rejig include Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, and some northeastern states.
Sources claimed Rahul’s growing involvement in party affairs — participation in the “Bharat Bachao” rally at the Ramlila Maidan and the party’s satyagraha against Citizenship Amendment Act at Raj Ghat, and his efforts to visit families of those killed in anti-CAA protests in Meerut — is being read as signs of his possible comeback.
Changes are also expected in Bihar, where Assembly elections are due in 2021. The Congress is planning to constitute a new district and block-level committees there.
A series of public rallies have been planned in the run-up to Gandhi taking over again. Today was the first, a public meeting in Jaipur (where the Congress is in power) which was marked by huge preparations including 40-feet cut-outs of Gandhi.
In an extremely short speech Gandhi tactically focused on the imploding economy and the huge jobs crisis. Gandhi cited the fact that employment generation is the lowest in 46 years. He focused on the youth and mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s understanding of the economy, saying Modi does not understand the GST.
RG was pointedly silent on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which the Congress opposed in parliament and which Modi and Amit Shah, battling anti-CAA protests all over the country, want to make the centerpiece of divisive identity politics.
The Gandhi spiel today is the blue-print he is expected to follow in a series of public meetings scheduled across the country, especially in Congress-ruled states. Another rally is scheduled in Kerala later this week. Gandhi is elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in the coastal state.
RG and his advisors have decided that he will stick to a strict script of bread-and-butter issues such as the economic collapse and unemployment. RG will not attempt to re-litigate the Rafale deal where he continuously alleged corruption of the Modi government through the campaign for the general election.
Nor will he use his favourite slogan “chowkidar chor hai” to attack Modi. The jibe backfired big-time during last year’s campaign and in fact, it’s RG’s earlier “suit boot ki sarkar” that resonated among the public at large.
“We are fully aware of the anti-CAA protests but we don’t want to give Modi and Shah even a divisive inch. Sonia Gandhi is not a memorable speaker and now RG will follow the same blue-print. No more controversies which the BJP is adept at spinning to its advantage”, a senior Congress leader told me.
The plan is unlikely to cause any tremors. RG remains perceived as a fifth-generation dynasty who, despite being a politician for nearly two decades, is incredibly inexperienced in administration with zero experience in government.
The glimmer of intra-party democracy that Gandhi had offered when he quit in July (last year) of a non-family member helming the party is clearly over. The Congress has been headed by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family for much of its 135-year history
(With Inputs from Agencies).
