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The Congress is in disarray now, with Rahul Gandhi threatening to submit his resignation and asking the Working Committee led by the party veteran Ahmed Patel and another member Venugopal to select a suitable replacement. The insiders in the Congress point out that, though, a section of Congress members are not unhappy with his likely decision, another section close to the Gandhi family, is pleading with Rahul not to take any drastic decision and instead guide them with his leadership for future growth of the party. It is being reliably learnt that the Congress President is furious over the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Chief Ministers, Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot, respectively for permitting their sons to contest in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections and termed it as encouraging dynasty politics.
Though, Kamal Nath’s son won the battle against his arch-BJP rival, the Chief Minister did not attend the party working committee meeting convened by Rahul Gandhi after the declaration of results, as he did not want to incur the wrath of his party supremo. Likewise, when Rahul turned his ire on Gehlot and asked him to meet him at his residence, the writing was on the wall for the Rajasthan Chief Minister. For Rahul, what has caused his diatribe against Gehlot was that his son could not even put up a semblance of resistance against the formidable BJP candidate. The Congress President also had to make him understand that the time has come for him to pave way for his arch-rival Sachin Pilot, even though it was Rahul, who preferred Gehlot, considering his seniority, after the party wrested the power from BJP in the last year assembly elections.
Rahul was already sore over Kamal Nath when he made an ill-conceived remark that Madhya Pradesh will give priority to sons of the soil in employment and education after taking the mantle on his shoulder, following the party’s victory against the BJP in the assembly elections six months ago. It was apparent that Rahul had to bypass the popularity of Jyoti Raja Scindia to accommodate Kamal Nath by virtue of his seniority, but the Congress earned the displeasure of the people, especially the farmers in Madhya Pradesh, when the much announced farmers waiver loan” did not take off. Moreover, the Congress is running the government in the State with a razor-thin majority, and it was a last straw on the back of the party when Scindia too, conceded his defeat to the BJP candidate by a huge margin in Gwalior. Left with no other alternative, Rahul did not spar the former Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, too, when he attempted to console him after the party’s defeat, for fielding his son Karti, from Chidambaram constituency in Tamil Nadu, despite his shabby record, and especially after the CBI started investigating mounting corruption charges against him. When Chidambaram reminded Rahul that, in spite of political vendetta against his son, he emerged victorious with a huge margin against his nearest BJP rival H. Raja, the party President, as the sources confirm, had blamed Chidambaram for encouraging dynasty politics. Moreover, Rahul was dejected that his NYAY scheme had not convinced the electorate, as a large number of voters, including many Congress supporters drubbed it as an “Old wine in the new bottle”. Moreover, the Congress could not project any worthwhile scheme that could benefit the people in the long-run, although the party manifesto seemed to be impressive. The people were not surprised when Modi said after the results that the BJP’s chemistry triumphed over the arithmetic of Congress.
The insiders in the Congress affirm that the party took the country for granted in Lok Sabha elections after its victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh assembly polls last year, similar to the one propelled the Vajpayee government to advance the Lok Sabha election by ten months in 2004. It may be recalled that the BJP won the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in a triumphant manner in 2003. The then BJP leader and the party strategist Pramod Mahajan had conceived it as an “India Shining” slogan. This made the BJP to believe that it will be a cakewalk victory for them in the following general elections. But, much to the discomfiture of the Vajpayee government then, the pendulum swung in favour of the Congress. Even the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu was impressed with the India shining slogan and wanted to experiment it before the general and assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh. But much against the wishes of Vajpayee and Naidu, their parties had lost the elections. The Telugu Desam Party was virtually mauled.
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