As the Congress celebrates victory in 3 states on December 11 which also marked Rahul Gandhi’s one year anniversary as President of the Congress Party, it is clear that the reins of the party are not in his hands.
Infighting has brewed between the new guard and the old guard, both in centre and the state. While he seems to favor the younger players in the party, his mother is generous to her older loyalists.
The accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Kamal Nath has been made the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, by sidelining a younger Jyoyiraditya Scindia, while, Sachin Pilot irritably shoved his poor pet dog probably because Sonia Gandhi’s loyalist Ashok Gehlot has been made Chief Minister of Rajasthan after roadblocks and protests by Pilot’s faction. This confirms that Sonia Gandhi still holds the reins to the Party.
Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi preceded him as President while he was made the Vice President in 2013. The notorious history of Sonia Gandhi’s wish to become Prime Minister and then her silent withdrawal from laying claim, when her eligibility to become PM was questioned, is known to all. It is also known how she projected Manmohan Singh to the throne, and yet, called all the shots herself earning him the sobriquet, ‘India’s Puppet Prime Minister’.
Sonia Gandhi and the Gandhi Scion led the party through devastating election losses. Rahul made his entry in politics in 2004 as a youth a leader, became MP from Amethi, and managed a poor attendance in the Parliament and an even poorer performance as MP. He was blamed for the numerous election losses since 2013, but he knew that a promotion was on its way and therefore, he made headlines in 2015, with a 60-day sabbatical, which was later found to be a vacation in South East Asian Countries.
After he finally assumed the post of Party President, unelected, the 48-year-old youth leader seemed to have finally come of age. As has been the case with all his ‘coming of age’ bluffs, he remains a forced politician and a natural comic but with the secret ingenuity of running a psychological offensive on the people with unfounded claims to defame the opponents in government. Yet, he is still unable to reap the benefits of his politics. Earlier, Sonia Gandhi took the decision to make HD Kumaraswamy the chief minister of Karnataka which Rahul seemed to oppose but later he accepted the decision.
After the December 11 election results, the onus seemed to be on party president Rahul Gandhi to decide who takes the Chief Ministerial posts. While it took days to decide on the same, it was only after mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi met with the Scion to discuss the fate of the states, in their drawing room, the decision was taken. With these choices and rejections, it is clear that Rahul’s new guard has been rejected by Sonia’s old guard.