The million dollar question that’s plaguing the Indian National Congress is predicting which way party scion Rahul Gandhi will turn as he continues to flip-flop his way through his political career. After initially courting the young guns of the grand old party, the Wayanad MP has now claimed that he made a ‘mistake’ by focusing only on young faces.
As the G23 leaders led by senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal refuse to relent from their demands of having sweeping changes in the intra-party workings of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi seems to have finally relented as he now claims that he made a ‘mistake’ by focusing only on young faces.
Addressing the national executive meeting of Indian Youth Congress, Gandhi said that more importance needs to be given to those who are “Congress at heart”.
The 23 rebel Congress leaders have a strong hold in the party. For the last nearly 10 months, leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma and Manish Tiwari have been hinting towards a new non-Gandhi president of the Congress in order to salvage the party’s rapidly declining prospects. One of the major reasons for the demand of a non-Gandhi president is down to the fact that Rahul’s glaring failures has made the Wayanad MP persona non grata when it comes to becoming the country’s next Prime Minister especially after his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Smriti Irani in Amethi.
As the party faces the threat of being vertically split, Rahul is perhaps attempting to convince the warring leaders.
Rahul is perhaps very angry with the younger leaders in the party especially after the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia which resulted in the downfall of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh.
Referring to Scindia, Gandhi had recently said, “He (Scindia) would have become the chief minister had he stayed with Congress but has become a backbencher in the BJP. Scindia had the option to strengthen the organisation by working with Congress workers. I told him — one day you will become the chief minister. But he chose another route.”
The former Congress president was further quoted as saying by ANI, “Write it down, he will never become chief minister there. He will have to come back here for that.” Rahul Gandhi also told the youth party workers to fight the ideology of RSS and not be “afraid of anyone.”
Read More: ‘Would have got better opportunities, if he would have stayed’: Rahul Gandhi acts like a a jilted lover over Jyotiraditya Scindia
In Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot albeit failingly raised the flag of rebellion against Ashok Gehlot and the party had to scramble its senior leaders to pacify the Pilot camp.
Rahul’s statement can be seen as an indication that the senior leaders and Sonia Gandhi loyalists are back in the reckoning and are all set to get more importance in the party.