Congress is back to square one, since the resignation of Rahul Gandhi, Congress is indulged in a drama of choosing their top leader. Though it is quite evident that it is the Gandhi family, which has an undisputed claim over the Congress presidentship, however, Gandhi family loves to enact this presidentship drama every now and then, to assess their hold over the party, and to sideline the stalwarts, who are planning to stake their claims.
Since the resignation of Rahul Gandhi, there were growing speculations that who will be taking over the reins of the Congress party, but as expected, the drama happened and ultimately Sonia Gandhi was made an interim President of the Congress Party. It was expected to hand over the leadership of Congress to Rahul Gandhi once again on 10th August, but somehow that didn’t materialize and Sonia Gandhi will remain the interim president till the election of Congress President.
Amid all these speculations, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that she is in complete agreement with her brother Rahul Gandhi’s opinion that a non-Gandhi should be appointed the Congress president. She added that none from Gandhi Family should be the president of the party and I am in full agreement with him, and the party should find its own path also.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made this statement in an interview in the book India Tomorrow: Conversations with the Next Generation of Political Leaders, which has been written by Pradeep Chibber and Harsh Shah.
Priyanka further added that she would happily accept a non-Gandhi as her ‘President’. “If he (party president) tells me tomorrow that he doesn’t want me in Uttar Pradesh but wants me to be in Andaman and Nicobar, then I would jolly well go to Andaman and Nicobar,” she was quoted as saying, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Rahul Gandhi resigned from Congress president post after the massive defeat in 2019’s Lok Sabha elections. The similar drama continued then, though everyone was aware that heads must roll and leadership must change, but in the end, everyone settled with a Gandhi President, when Sonia Gandhi made the Congress President, once again.
Gandhi’s are GOD, Keep your faith in them, else get ready to be sidelined
Many party leaders including Kapil Sibbal, Shashi Tharoor, Sanjay Jha, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasada Deepender Hooda, Sandeep Dixit, and Sanjay Nirupam expressed their concerns over the Leadership dilemma, but most of those leaders have been sidelined or ridiculed by the party. Since then many prominent leaders have deserted the Congress camp.
Recently a prominent congress leader Sanjay Jha claimed that more than 100 leaders of Congress including some sitting MPs, had written to Sonia Gandhi seeking a change in the political leadership of the party. Though Party refuted these claims and suspended him instead.
Growing Leadership vacuum in Congress
Since the massive defeat of Mallikarjun Kharge, the party is pretending to be searching for a new leader in Parliament. Rahul Gandhi hardly attends the Parliament’s sessions as he remains out of India most of the time, that too without informing the Party. There is growing resentment within the State Congress Committees, due to high command culture and no delegation of leadership at local level.
It has been observed in Haryana, where there was a tussle between Hudda and Ashok Tanwar, which resulted in consecutive term to BJP in the state. Similar leadership debacles were responsible for the loss of Government in two Major states, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Recently Congress somehow able to save its face in Rajasthan, where these leadership tussles between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot almost snatched the Government from Congress’s hands. amid all this crisis, the Congress Leadership was non-existent.
It is observed that Sonia Gandhi was deadly against Rahul Gandhi quitting the Party President post. She cannot tolerate that someone else from outside the family can muster the courage to take over the reins of Congress, which she believes is a personal Enterprise of the Gandhi Family.
In the worst-case scenarios, Gandhi family would love to instill a Manmohan Singh-like figure, who could be controlled via Family proxy. But in this entire process, Congress is losing its sheen (if any exists) and losing states after states, above all, it has lost all its credibility and none of its attacks fins any taker in the general public.
Gandhi, Non-Gandhi or Vadra?
Now this game has become very interesting. Per few media reports, all is not well between Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, at least they are not on the same page, and it has been seen on several occasions. The recent Migrant bus issue between Priyanka Vadra and Uttar Pradesh Government was an example, where Rahul Gandhi completely ignored the endeavors of Priyanka Gandhi. Something similar happened recently on 5th August, when we saw the foundation laying down ceremony of Ram Mandir. Where Rahul Gandhi led Congress IT cell was ridiculing this ceremony, on the other hand Priyanka Vadra was showing fake ‘Hindutva’.
It seems the Vadra’s are not happy with Gandhis and they have started an undercurrent to thwart Rahul Gandhi and establish someone ‘else’ from their extended ‘Vadra Family’ to take over the reigns of congress party.
It seems Priyanka Vadra and Robert Vadra have started working on the elevation of their son Rehan Vadra, who can assume the leadership in the near future. Raihan has been seen emulating his Mama Rahul Gandhi, he has seen eating food with Dalits and Poors in Amethi, there are several Facebook pages of his supporters, where party people have started an unofficial campaign to elevate Raihan Vadra to a senior role. He has started making political statements on his Facebook pages, and the day is not far when he will be included in Congress Party.
Conclusion
The game is very simple here, Congress is a family enterprise, it has been ruled by Gandhi Family, though few exceptions were there, but those were just eyewash. Gandhi Family has a habit of playing this mind game every now and then, but everyone knows that its the Gandhi Family, which has the de facto claim over the Congress President ship.
Sonia Gandhi became Party president in 1998, and since the last 22 years, its been a complete family affair, and we are in the opinion that it will remain like that in the future as well. If Gandhi Family thinks someone is challenging their heirs from within the party, then the entire Cabal started working against that person and ensure his/her exit from the party.
But the biggest question here is, amid a super strong Leader like PM Modi at the helm of the affairs, how long Congress will continue these Leadership drama and compromise its stature in Indian Politics?
