News of preponed Lok Sabha elections have been doing the rounds for the past few days. All the political parties that were gearing up for 2019 Lok Sabha have now entered into a state of panic in order to prepare themselves for the elections which are likely to be held in December. In any scenario, there is less than a year left for the Lok Sabha elections and the national opposition party Congress has decided to make some changes in their senior team. Rahul Gandhi has seriously put into question the relevance of the Congress party on the Indian political scenario, after having lost various state elections and effectively becoming the B team of the JDS in Karnataka. Reports have emerged that Congress is likely to appoint senior leader Jairam Ramesh as the election campaign co-ordinator for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi is likely to be sidelined from the election campaign’s strategy-making team owing to the debacles the Congress has faced under his leadership.
According to a report published in The Hindu, Congress is soon going to appoint former Cabinet Minister and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh as the campaign co-ordinator team head. Jairam Ramesh had previously headed the Congress election campaign in 2004 and 2009 which Congress had won. A large part of the credit for winning the two consecutive Lok Sabha elections went to Jairam Ramesh, before the reins of the Congress campaign committee were passed on to Rahul Gandhi in 2014. The downfall of Congress which started in 2014 and the following devastation in subsequent state elections has probably convinced the core Congress committee that Rahul Gandhi is not qualified enough to lead his own family’s party in the coming elections.
This is however not the first instance when Rahul Gandhi will be sidelined. Rahul Gandhi had dubbed JDS as the B-team of BJP prior to the Karnataka elections and had gave negative answers to any queries of a possible alliance between JDS and Congress. In the post election phase, however, Congress sidelined Rahul Gandhi and went into an alliance with the JDS. According to sources, it was Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi who had taken this decision in order to keep Karnataka in their grasp. The combine of Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi succeeded in sidelining Rahul who would have otherwise let Karnataka slip, as the B team allegation turned on its head as Congress turned out to be B team for the JDS instead.
BJP on the other hand has been led by party President Amit Shah who has a hands on approach to management. From developing the party from the grassroots to planning pre-poll campaign strategies, Amit Shah has control and say over every activity which takes place in the BJP. Amit Shah is a tried and tested candidate for the Party President post. He has the necessary skill and the far-sightedness needed to make BJP win elections.
While Rahul has been gifted his post in the Congress, Amit Shah has earned his seat and proven his talent at the top. Rahul Gandhi and his dynasty politics has led to the downfall of Congress while Amit Shah has taken BJP to new heights. This is the difference between dynasty and democracy, where an able leader is leading the largest democratic party today while Congress is being led by a dynast, whose only claim to the post is his inheritance.
