The only ray of hope for the Congress party’s fortunes
post 2014 reflected in heir apparent Rahul Gandhi’s decision to appoint Sachin
Pilot as the State President of Rajasthan Congress on 13th January.
Just when one was hoping that the new year will see many such bold decisions, the
Congress high command went ahead and appointed Arun Yadav as the new State
president of Madhya Pradesh Congress. Arun’s father Subhash Yadav was a senior
Congress leader who also served as Deputy Chief Minister under Digvijaya Singh
in the 1990s. But everyone knew that the reason for Subhash Yadav’s rise had
more to do with him being an OBC rather than his abilities as a politician.
While Sachin is seen as a young and ambitious leader,
but he still has to please the Meenas, Jats and the OBC’s if he is to revive
the Congress from the hammering it has just received in the Assembly elections
at the hands of BJP. He also has the aspirations of Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav
to deal with, but he is relatively new to politics. Jitendra Singh is more at
ease staying in Delhi helping Rahul Gandhi as an organization man. So the field
is clear for the young Pilot to start afresh.
Arun on the
other hand is not as young as Pilot, and one hopes can spring a pleasant
surprise for the Congress in the state. But with the BJP winning for the third
time in a row, Congress is on the brink of fading out completely just like the
BJP was in Delhi during Sheila Dikshit’s regime. Adding to his problems is the
fact that the next generation of Digvijaya Singh, Kantilal Bhuria, Kamalnath is
already ready to take on the mantle. While other senior leaders like Satyavrat
Chaturvedi and Suresh Pachauri are still around. Then ofcourse he has the likes
of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Meenakshi Natarajan and Priyavrat Singh (MP, IYC
President) to deal with. Adding to this is the fact that he is not considered a
bright bet will only make the task more onerous.
It is in this backdrop that the Congress headquarters at
Akbar Road are abuzz with preparations for the prodigal son’s coronation, it
will be foolhardy to expect a major organizational change on the cards. It was
almost a year ago that Rahul Gandhi was anointed Vice President on 19th
January, 2013 in Jaipur. Though Congressmen celebrated the elevation across the
country, but little has been achieved by the Party in the past one year. It was
wiped out from the same place of his coronation within a year.
The party has little to cheer about, it won Mizoram,
lost Delhi and Rajasthan while failed to dent the BJP in MP and Chhattisgarh.
But what has had a telling blow to the morale of the party is the emergence of
AAP. A party that thrived on abusing the first family of the Congress while
accusing the UPA of being the most corrupt Govt. Despite all this, the Congress
has ended up supporting AAP to help the one year old party to power in Delhi
and fire the imagination of the people fed with the same old political parties.
There was talk of one man one post in the Congress for
the past many years. When Rahul Gandhi took over as General Secretary of the
party in 2007, many thought he will relieve a lot of senior ministers of their
dual roles who are Union Ministers as well as party office bearers. Nothing did
change, there were similar talks when he was appointed Vice President last year
but status quo remained. Hence it will be prudent on our part to assume that
the same system will still rule the roost, at least for now.
Younger faces like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitendra
Singh who enjoy full support of the incumbent President will play a major role
in the 2014 Election strategy. The usual suspects of the IYC pass outs like
Ashok Tanwar and Meenakshi Natarajan may also get some assignment since the
party has to show it promotes leaders from SC/ST and middle class families too.
This is because most of the young leaders in the party are either sons or
relatives of regional satraps of the party. The tag of dynastic rule in the
party refuses to go despite Rahul trying his best to do so since his entry into
politics in 2004.
Most General Secretaries are likely to contest Lok
Sabha elections, especially the ones who are close confidantes of Rahul.
Madhusudan Mistry who got into Rahul’s good books after a comprehensive
research on candidates in Karnataka assembly elections. But his tenure as UP in
charge has been found wanting, and he will have to contest from Sabarkantha,
Gujarat. CP Joshi is the other senior leader who is considered very close to
Rahul, but he also failed to deliver when they were wiped out of Rajasthan in
December last year. He too will have to retain his Nathdwara seat from
Rajasthan in Lok Sabha elections. Other leaders like Digvijay Singh, Gurudas
Kamat, Luizinho Faleiro, BK Hariprasad too will have to fight it out in LS
2014.
The spade work for his coronation has already begun by
giving the party’s PR contract of Rs 500 crores to Dentsu India which will work
closely with Rahul’s team to make short films and advertisements to boost his
image in the public. While Burson-Marsteller will handle his social media by
creating a buzz with interesting tweets, debates on Twitter and Facebook. They
will also bring more awareness by hard selling UPA’s flagship schemes like
MNREGA, RTI, NFSB, DBT and the latest being Lokpal Bill. One can already see
younger faces like Randeep Singh Surjewala and Shoba Oza defend the party at
official press briefings.
But the work is harder than it ever was for Rahul
Gandhi. He has to convince the public which seems to be sure that UPA’s second
tenure has been full of corruption (2G, CWG, Coalgate etc) while his party has
already enjoyed the fruits of power for 10 years. He is also pitted against
Narendra Modi as a rival for the PM’s chair. Most political pundits will write
him off as a no contest against the well oiled PR machinery of BJP’s PM
candidate Narendra Modi. Perhaps Rahul too thinks that going the hi tech way
will improve his TRP amongst the public, but doing that will only make him
another follower and not a leader whom others look to follow.
The fear of Modi running away with the advantage seems
to be top most on the mind of the Congress think tank. That explains why the
sudden hurry to anoint Rahul as the supreme leader of the party and then
improve his image through seasoned PR companies. Adding to more speculation is
his sister Priyanka Vadra also attending the war room meetings of the Party.
While Rahul will be the face of the party, it will be Priyanka who will plan
the strategy for LS 2014 as the backroom operator. This will not only rejuvenate the party cadre, but will
also keep them guessing that all hope is not lost after LS 2014. Just like the
Manmohan Sonia combination, the Congress is now offering the country a brand new Rahul Priyanka
combination. The Congress may talk and advertise about its much hyped makeover, but the truth is that they only have a handful of families to share the spoils of power and be instruments of change. Only the name changes, the blend remains the same just like the grand old party.
