The decision to pitch Rahul Gandhi as the face for the PM in the next Lok Sabha elections, though was not formally taken in the recently held CWC meeting, the same was forcefully stated in the press conference followed soon after that.
Leaders Ashok Gehlot and Randeep Surjewala declared that Congress would fight from the most number of seats and hoped to garner 200 seats, paving the way for coalitions with willing partners to dislodge BJP and form the government. The Congress has merely 48 seats and may find it impossible to garner a strength beyond 90 or so. By proposing irreconcilably, the name of Rahul, it has dashed the hopes of many PM aspirants from across the country and thus dashing the hopes of any post-electoral adjustments.
Let’s take the case of West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee is polishing her Hindi, not for no reason. She is hungry, having ruled Bengal for seven long years, pulverising any and every opposition party. Her faction would like to see her in Delhi. Ditto with the most potent political state UP. Mayawati knows her strength as a Dalit face and tying up with SP and Akhilesh she is dynamite. The wily SP leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav has long been nurturing his ambitions to be the Prime Minister and could stake a claim for the post.
The nobler BJD Chief Navin Pattnaik or the sly Nitish Kumar could be propped up as an alternative face of the Federal front that Mamata Banerjee is dreaming of. Not to forget Chandra Babu Naidu, who regardless of his lesser numbers and historical enmity with Telangana’s TSR would love to shift to Delhi too.
One of the most significant threats to Rahul and all the Gandhi’s, Jayalalithaa has died and beyond creating any danger to the Congress or to Rahul and TN does not have any charismatic leader to pose a challenge, similar like in Karnataka. Kamal Nath who dared to miss the no-confidence vote to stay back in MP could himself be a threat.
The entire N.E. and Assam too would be happy to stay away, and the challenging Sangma clan are nowhere near. Does Maharashtra have any challenger to Rahul? The unpredictable Shiv Sena could be the dampener, regardless of their political flip-flops.
Congress has to reinvent itself, rebrand the party and stop pretending stupid laying its trust on Gandhi’s laps. There could be a good many leaders, even youngsters like Scindia and Pilot or elders as well. Adamantly sticking on to Rahul as PM would finish off Congress’s chances of crossing 60 or 70 seats at best.
Sensing the mood, the puppeteers of the BJP party sitting in Nagpur may prop up an alternative face as the change everyone wants, much like the Left front put Buddhadev Bhattacharjee then as the fresh alternative to the old leadership of Jyoti Basu. Who in that case you may ask. Nitin Gadkari could be one, in my humble opinion, unless in their characteristic idiocy try to thrust some hardline Hindutva face from UP.
But with Rahul as the PM face, chances of Congress have become dimmer.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix
