NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as Congress president was supposed to end the debate whether the Gandhis will actually relinquish stewardship of the party. But it ended up stoking a fresh one at a time when defections in Karnataka and Goa point to a crisis more fundamental than just a painful poll defeat. Is Congress really moving away from the Gandhi family, as the intense search for Rahul’s replacement would suggest? Or, will it just be a change of form, with a Gandhi returning to helm the party after this interim measure?
Three developments catch the eye. The day Rahul Gandhi released his four-page farewell letter making his resignation irrevocable, his aides were quick to inform that he will personally appear in over 20 defamation cases filed against him by RSS-BJP leaders across the country.
He started the next day at a Mumbai court and has since been to Patna and Ahmedabad. At the Congress Working Committee two days after the May 23 Lok Sabha defeat where he first announced his decision to step down, Rahul said he had waged a lone battle against the Sangh parivar, virtually arguing he wants to be free of administrative chores to revive Congress.
At a gathering of MPs on June 26, Rahul said he would work for the party “10 times harder” than before. This comes while the search for a new president, with a limited pool of choices, appears to be veering towards a veteran. To view the outgoing chief ’s political intent in conjunction with a veteran taking charge does suggest a mere change of form — the nuts and bolts of organisational work would be for the new president while the public face, in the long-term, would be a Gandhi.
Fear of friction
The possibility of this diarchy remains strong as Congress moves into unchartered territory of a non-Gandhi at the helm despite three members of the first family active in politics. Though the link has been disrupted, Congress has held that its president (a Gandhi more likely than not) is or will be prime minister. The Manmohan Singh-Sonia arrangement was the exception as she declined the job. Cutting across factions and individuals, the sentiment is that the Gandhis are not going anywhere.
Curiously, a Congress insider, who has sounded out some potential candidates for the top job, revealed that there was not much interest for what should be seen as a prized post. Some old-timers are “strong loyalists”, uneasy about stepping into the shoes of a Gandhi while others don’t want to be in a position where they have to seek approval of “three residences” for every decision.
The possibility of Rahul and Priyanka playing outsize roles will worry any incumbent. There remains the other possibility — that a new president may begin to exercise powers assertively. Both scenarios point to friction.
Meanwhile, the party organisation in the states is folding up. The defection of 10 Goa MLAs, eight of them Catholics, is a case in point with many pointing to the ineptness of the state in-charge A Chellakumar.
The political logic of the alliance with JD(S) in Karnataka to halt BJP has taken a beating with the saffron party taking 25 of 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state.