From Pappu to President: Rahul Gandhi set to take over

By Nimesh Bansal

After years of reluctance and dilly-dallying, the ‘Pappu’ of Indian politics—Vice President Rahul Gandhi—looks set to take over the President post as the Congress looks to rebuild its image.

Congress Working Committee sets the big dates

The Congress Working Committee announced the schedule for the election of a new party President on Monday. A notification will be issued on 1st December and nominations can be filed by candidates on 4th December. This will be followed by voting on 16th December and the votes will be counted on 19th December. Rahul Gandhi, however, is widely expected to run unopposed. If so, the party will announce Rahul’s victory on 5th December, well before voting begins in the Gujarat elections on 9th December.

A new Congress?

Rahul Gandhi’s imminent appointment as the party President on the eve of the Gujarat elections is a double-edged sword for the Congress scion. While a victory could herald the arrival of a new Congress with a strong leader, a loss will be a hard hit to Rahul’s image. Even as Vice President, it is Rahul who has been the face of Congress’s campaigning in the BJP-dominated state. Trying to shed the party’s pro-minority image, he has recently been temple hopping in Gujarat. While this has led to accusations from the BJP about Congress playing the “soft Hindutva” card, it is clear that he and his party have a strategy in place.

Appealing to the majority

Last year a senior Congress insider said, “The Congress under Rahul Gandhi will start shedding the pro-minority tag which is making it unattractive to the majority.” In the time since, the party has been making minor tweaks to increase its appeal to the majority, that is Hindus. For a long time, the only religious parties the Congress hosted were Iftar parties during Ramadan. Now, however, they have been celebrating festivals like Janmashtami and Ram Navami at its Pradesh Committee offices. Recently, during the first 50 days of campaigning in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi visited 11 Hindu temples. The Congress, for the first time, is thus targeting the 90 percent Hindu majority in the state rather than the 10 percent Muslim population, which has traditionally been Congress voters. As a show of the change in philosophy, Congress hasn’t even once mentioned the 2002 Gujarat riots during this campaign—something that has been their go-to card since long. India’s grand old party led by Rahul Gandhi is trying to capture the vote share from the disgruntled Hindu majority who have been left disillusioned by the Centre’s hard-hitting policies of demonetisation and then the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Much to do

Even in the light of the party’s policy shift, Rahul Gandhi has much work to do to stem Congress’s downslide. With the exception of Punjab, the party has been losing state after state since 2014. Following on from Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi’s mettle as the party chief will be tested when his party goes head-to-head with BJP in 2018. The year sees elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh—states where the Congress aims to take advantage of a potential anti-incumbency sentiment. However, the President-in-waiting does not have any time to lose.

Another Gandhi by his side

It is widely reported that Rahul Gandhi’s ascension to party President will finally see the entry of sister Priyanka Gandhi in the world of politics. While she has never been a full-time member of the Congress, her contributions to the party cannot be overlooked. Among her other achievements, Priyanka is largely credited for saving the alliance between the Congress and Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh after differences arose between the two over seat-sharing. Her negotiation skills and charisma has often been compared to that of her late grandmother, Indira Gandhi. If Priyanka does indeed join forces with Rahul, his presidency will get off to a strong start.

Rahul’s insurance policy

Rahul will also enjoy some of the unique perks that he can call upon as the Congress President. Even after past failures, the party has always pushed him to the forefront, and one suspects that even in his new role he will have, to an extent, an insurance policy against failure. This, in essence, affords the Congress scion unlimited power without responsibility—a luxury his opponents wish they had. This coupled with the collateral damage caused by the ruling BJP as a result of their destabilising reforms, offers Rahul Gandhi a distinct advantage as he takes Congress’s reins.

If, as expected, Rahul gets the gig unopposed before the Gujarat elections, he will have a mammoth task at hand as his first job. However, with the Congress continually catering to the latest Gandhi politician to take charge of the party, it is clear that he is in it for the long haul.  

Featured Image Source: Rajasekharan Parameswaran at English Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons