Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s health concerns have hit the party’s ambitions, at least for the near future. Poor trust in Rahul Gandhi’s political acumen could force the party to bring in someone outside of the first family to help run things smoothly. R Rajagopalan reports from New Delhi.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s illness during the Varanasi road show and her subsequent hospitalisation have revived an old fear within the party: Who will follow suit?
Although Sonia Gandhi is out of the hospital, her recovery period is estimated at around three months. This means the onus of the party’s operations and its successes will now fall on the shoulders of party Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
After interacting with at least six Congress working committee members who are MPs and also with two close confidants of the Gandhi family, this correspondent has learnt that the imperative for the party is to ensure that the transition of power from Sonia to Rahul be smooth.
Nevertheless, a growing opinion within the party suggests that any fighting chance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will require the party to depend on someone outside of the first family to supplement the poll campaign.
Since, apparently, Rahul and Priyanka cannot take up the political workload on their own, a third choice may be imminent in the near future.
For the party, the first major test is the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due next year, especially given the Congress's upsurge in civic elections in a few northern states. But even if that were to be managed, the biggest challenge before the party is to prepare for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but who will lead it into battle?
Rahul Gandhi does not take after his mother, something that is now acknowledged by many within the party. His tenure as the party’s VP and his 13 years as a member of Parliament do not seem to have taught him the fine art of politics; this is a major concern for those who wish to see him as a viable alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For the Congress party it is imperative to project Rahul Gandhi as prime ministerial candidate in the 2019 elections but his inability to cope with his mother’s pace could lead to a potential derailment of his elevation to the top slot as party president.
With her health in disarray and advancing age, it seems unlikely that Sonia Gandhi, who will be over 70 years old at the time of the 2019 general elections, will be able take on the burden of touring the nation.
In other words, a few years hence, the party will be deprived of the certitude of control that the family has exerted on it, with some brief interruptions, for five decades. A Congress leader, recalling how Rajiv Gandhi’s sudden demise in 1991 created a political vacuum which Sonia was able to bridge, wondered if Rahul will be able to manage a similar feat.
Hence, murmurs have begun within the Congress about the possibility of having a strong leader who can back Rahul Gandhi in 2019.
One of the ideas now being floated to counter such a situation is to have two vice presidents for the party: Rahul Gandhi being the obvious first, with Ghulam Nabi Azad or Digvijaya Singh being a potential second. Party insiders have ruled out the possibility of P Chidambaram as he has many pending legal cases against him, which could boomerang on the party.
R Rajagopalan is a veteran political analyst and a Congress watcher for more than 30 years.
