Will The Gandhis Step Down?

IMAGE: Congress workers stage a protest in favour of the leadership of the Gandhis ahead of the CWC meeting outside the party headquarters in New Delhi.
Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Even those who dislike him acknowledge that Rahul Gandhi is a good human being with his heart in the right place.
Perhaps, it is time for him, his mother and sister to take a back seat in the Congress organisation and let someone more dynamic like Sachin Pilot take the reins of the party before the future-of-India defining Lok Sabha election of 2024.
Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

IMAGE: K C Venugopal, seen here with Sonia and Rahul, has been one of their closest advisors for some years.
If the party has done so badly in recent elections, isn't it time to replace Venugopal with someone more electorally astute and wise?
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: As Rasheed Kidwai, who has written books on Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party, told Rediff.com in an interview posted on March 14, 'Sonia Gandhi was the star campaigner in the five states (that went to the polls), but she did not step out of her house.'
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: 'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president,' Mr Kidwai asserted in his current interview.
A long-time watcher of the Congress party and its internal dynamicṣ, he told Rediff.com in September 2020 that 'Sonia is one of the finest students of the university of life'.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Sonia Gandhi clearly misses Ahmed Patel by her side.
As her primary political advisor, Ahmedbhai had guided Sonia's path in Congress and national politics since 1998 when she decided to plunge into the treacherous waters of the body politic.
Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

IMAGE: When Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com asked Mr Kidwai in July 2020 if Sonia Gandhi and her children were on the same page while running the party, his reply was revealing: 'It can be said without hesitation that Rahul, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi enjoy perfect relations of mother-daughter-son all together in the family.
But their worldview is different and their style of functioning is different and their favourites in the party are different people.
'Nowhere in history and in the contemporary democratic system do you have three members of family out in the field.'
Photograph: PTI Photo

IMAGE: No Congress leader worked harder in the recent elections than Priyanka Gandhi who addressed countless meeting in Uttar Pradesh and drew large crowds.
That the Congress could only win two seats in the UP assembly is mnow being held against her.
But what, we ask, if she had begun her campaign earlier, what if she had been supported aggressively by party leaders (some of who snipe at her now) and what if the messaging had been sharper?
Priyanka, we believe, needs to continue stay invested in UP.
Who knows? The results in 2024 could be a surprise if she aligns the Congress-Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party in an ego-free Mahagathbandan that goes one on one, head to head, with the BJP in UP's 8- Lok Sabha constituencies.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Priyanka -- rather than her brother who has the baggage of bad past political decisions -- is also perhaps better suited to begin consultations with the breakaway Congress parties -- the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, the Y S R Congress in Andhra Pradesh, the National People's Party in Meghalaya and Manipur -- and weave a broad alliance before the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Harish Rawat was one of the casualties in the assembly election in Uttarakhand.
The Congress was poised to return to power, given the BJP's record of indifferent governance in the state (it even replaced two chief ministers).
Not only did the BJP storm back to power, making history as the first party since Uttarakhand's founding in 2000 to win a second term in office, but former chief minister Rawat was defeated by over 19,000 votes in the Lalkuwa seat.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Ghulam Nabi Azad is one of the leaders of the G-23 rebels who want the Gandhis to step aside and change to be immediately ushered into the party.
A long-time Congressman, Azad's loyalist credentials have come under scrutiny after Prime Minister and BJP supremo Narendra Modi praised him handsomely last year, after he was awarded a Padma Bhushan in the 2022 Republic Day honours list (provoking a jibe from Jairam Ramesh) and his nephew Mubashir's recent decision to join the BJP.
Could Azad leave the Congress if the BJP offers him the chief ministership of his home province of Jammu and Kashmir?
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, whose nearly 40-year membership of the Rajya Sabha ends next month with no possibility of re-election in sight.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Will Rahul Gandhi and his mother step aside as the Congress's official and unofficial presidents and support someone young and gung-ho like Sachin Pilot as party boss rather than a member of the party's geriatric brigade?
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

IMAGE: Sonia Gandhi, more than her children, wields enormous moral authority in her party. Unlike Rahul, she is also seen as a bridge builder by political parties like the RJD and DMK, even perhaps Mamata Banerjee's TMC.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo