It seems that the Congress is not learning its lessons despite a series of embarrassing defeats, the Congress MPs have re-elected UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP). Breaking this big development, Congress chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala tweeted, “Smt. Sonia Gandhi elected as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party! She says, ‘we thank the 12.13 Cr voters for reposing faith in the Congress Party.”
Interestingly, her name was proposed by former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and her name was unanimously approved by all the Congress MPs. This comes in the background of a leadership crisis within the Congress even as the grand old party faced an embarrassing defeat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
This puts Sonia Gandhi in a very authoritative position within the Rahul Gandhi-led party. She is authorised to appoint leaders of the party in both the Houses of Parliament, viz. the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. She has virtually been positioned as the second-in-command of the Congress. Sonia Gandhi is now all set to pick the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha. There has been wide speculation about the party president, Rahul Gandhi opting for the crucial post.
Malikarjun Kharge, who had held this post till now is no longer available as he has been defeated from the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency in the recently concluded Parliamentary elections. It is bizarre how Rahul Gandhi who has become the epitome of failure in recent times and who even failed to protect the Gandhi bastion of Amethi, now seems set to take up such a crucial post. Congress spokesperson Surjewala also made it clear that Rahul is the Congress chief and there were no two opinions about it. He said, “I would request all the naysayers to hold their breath; the Congress Working Committee has authorised Rahul Gandhi to do a complete overhaul of the organisation from top to bottom…I would request all my friends in the media to wait for a while rather than fall prey to speculation.”
It is clear that despite a string of embarrassing defeats and a humiliating blow in the Lok Sabha polls this year, the Congress has failed to learn its lessons. Congress is unable to get rid of the Gandhis despite the Gandhi family failing to provide competent leadership to the party. The Congress is being crumbled under the weight of its first family. And still, the Nehru-Gandhi family is firmly in control of the party with Rahul Gandhi being the supremo of the party while Sonia occupying the second position of leadership in the party. This shows that the rule of dynastic succession that the party has been following for decades has backfired badly. Today, the nation has rejected the politics of dynastic succession and the Congress is the biggest victim of this rejection. But at this stage, the Congress is in no position to get rid of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Even the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi has acknowledged the issue of dynastic succession. He even indicted senior Congress leaders, Chidambaram, Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot of placing their sons above the party. It is hilarious how the one who epitomises nepotism and dynastic succession in Indian politics, blamed other party leaders for putting their sons above the party. Congress is already in a dire situation and it is only inviting more trouble for itself by sticking to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
