BackOpinion | Rahul Gandhi’s challenge is to show Congress is not a spent force
The biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi is to make Congress politically relevant to the millennial and retain the loyalty of the older generation
PremiumEarly in the summer of 2017, speculation about Rahul Gandhi’s imminent promotion as Congress president rose to its peak. A senior general secretary of the party began clearing his office in the party’s headquarters at 24, Akbar Road. The veteran leader began carrying his belongings to work in a briefcase everyday, unsure of when he’d be told to move.
“It is the prerogative of the party president to choose his team, and I know I would not be part of the new scheme of things. I just want my exit to be quick. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections is the biggest challenge for the CP (Congress president)," the general secretary had said back then.
Weeks later, he was removed from his post, as he had predicted. So were many others. The old guard was finally making room for young blood, signalling the launch of a new era of leadership and experiments.
Two years on, the Congress’ bid for power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections has seen India’s grand old party continue its search for the right formula, combining new experiments with old ideas.
After a historic drubbing in the 2014 general elections, the coming polls are a do-or-die battle for the opposition party.
Early in the summer of 2017, speculation about Rahul Gandhi’s imminent promotion as Congress president rose to its peak. A senior general secretary of the party began clearing his office in the party’s headquarters at 24, Akbar Road. The veteran leader began carrying his belongings to work in a briefcase everyday, unsure of when he’d be told to move.
“It is the prerogative of the party president to choose his team, and I know I would not be part of the new scheme of things. I just want my exit to be quick. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections is the biggest challenge for the CP (Congress president)," the general secretary had said back then.
Weeks later, he was removed from his post, as he had predicted. So were many others. The old guard was finally making room for young blood, signalling the launch of a new era of leadership and experiments.
Two years on, the Congress’ bid for power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections has seen India’s grand old party continue its search for the right formula, combining new experiments with old ideas.
After a historic drubbing in the 2014 general elections, the coming polls are a do-or-die battle for the opposition party.
The Congress faces the challenge not only of re-establishing its electoral dominance, but also—and perhaps more importantly—of sending a message to its cadre on the ground that it is not a spent force. The new Congress president, who took over in December 2017, has to do what his predecessor and mother, Sonia Gandhi, had managed—to defeat a formidable Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi is to make the 134-year-old party politically relevant to the millennial while retaining the loyalty of the older generation.
This is the first national election in which Gandhi will be the Congress president—but there are a many other firsts in this poll.
It is the first time Gandhi has decided to contest outside of the pocket borough of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, venturing South to a second “safe seat"—Wayanad in Kerala. The experiment is not entirely novel—Congress stalwarts Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi turned to Karnataka for a second seat to revive the party’s fortunes.
While Congress leaders say the aim is to boost the party’s southern outreach, it could end up losing the perception battle—that it is less than confident about Gandhi’s fight to retain Amethi, a seat he has been representing since 2004. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directly attacked Gandhi for it.
Elections 2019 is also the first time that Rahul Gandhi’s younger sibling Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has actively participated in politics, overseeing Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
While the party is experiencing several changes, the leadership has not been able to strike a balance between reaching out to new alliance partners and strengthening its own presence on the ground.
While the early opposition campaign began with joint rallies in Kolkata and New Delhi, the Congress is eventually going solo in swing states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It has relied upon its age-old pro-poor welfare regime pitch by placing its key bets on the minimum income guarantee scheme Nyuntam Aay Yojana, or NYAY scheme. The party is well aware that it is pitted against the well-oiled election machinery of the BJP, with Modi as its biggest and most popular campaigner.
While states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are seen as key contests in North India, the Congress’ bigger worry and focus is in states where it faces the BJP directly—Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, among others. The Congress has fashioned its Lok Sabha election campaign along the lines of the state polls of December 2018, when it defeated the BJP in three states. Only 23 May will show if it is able to repeat its December performance or whether it will have to go back to the drawing board.
Anuja is national writer, Mint.
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