After the extremely humiliating showing in the 2014 Lok
Sabha elections Congress is facing the crisis it deserves for the decade of
decadence it had unleashed on India. With just 44 seats, Congress does not even
qualify to be the Leader of Opposition. Just how poor this Congress performance
is can be judged by the fact that J Jayalalitha got 37 seats, just 7 less than
Congress, from a single State (Tamilnadu).
In a less-than-two-minute appearance, Rahul Gandhi followedby Sonia Gandhi took responsibility for the decimation of the Party as theVice-President and President of Congress. But it doesn’t end there, does it? Assam
Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi of Congress is to resign from his post because of
the Party’s poor performance in the State. Nitish Kumar of JDU has resigned as
Chief Minister of Bihar for the same reason. It is natural that Sonia and Rahul
also resign from their posts in the Party.
It is widely expected that the du will give their
resignation on Monday. May 19th, 2014.
It is equally known that the Party will not accept the
resignations.
Congress Members Close Ranks to Protect the Family
Even before the counting started, Congress knew that it had
not fared well (though there was no inkling of just how badly they had done).
They knew that India had rejected them thumpingly. For all the tutored
ignorance about the pre-election Modi-wave, the Party knew that they were going
to be washed out.
Before May 16th, 2014, no one knew that Congress
would suffer its worst defeat in its the history (including the 1977 Elections
held right after the Emergency when Indira Gandhi was at her most unpopular) yet
the loyalists closed ranks to protect their Crown Prince, Rahul Gandhi. Various
Party workers were quick to go to the Press saying that the lacklustre, widely perceived
as incompetent (and oftentimes foolish) scion of the Family was not going to be
held responsible for whatever outcome the results gave. Sonia clearly was
beyond reproach so even the thought of questioning her leadership was
unthinkable, but Rahul needed to be protected.
Challenge from Within
The Congress advertising campaign prominently featuring
Rahul Gandhi did not strike any chord with the voters. The bewildered Party
didn’t know what to do to salvage itself – when a strong breeze of optimism
came in form of Priyanka Gandhi.
Campaigning for her mother and brother in Raebareli and
Amethi, Priyanka physically limited herself to these two constituencies but her
spirited anti-Modi salvos reached all Indians all across the world. Suddenly Congress
found a “leader” and there were voices of dissent against the Chosen Heir,
Rahul along with voices of support for the One-Who-Gave-It-Up, Priyanka. (These
voices became even more vociferous and were in the open once the counting
started).
Rumours about Rahul’s arrogance and incompetence (fuelled by
the fact he skipped the farewell dinner hosted by mom, Sonia for the outgoing
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and a magazine article in which the reporter
stated that after a decade, Rahul still didn’t know the name of a single
Congress worker in Amethi) gained ground and allegations about hisdrug-addiction started flying around (especially after his big-grin appearance
post the dismal failure of Congress that he led).
As always Congress looked for dynastic DNA to helm it and zeroed
in on Priyanka who has three things going for her:
- She is from the Family
- She looks like her gamdmother, Indira Gandhi
- She created waves with her fearless speeches in Amethi and Raebareli (incidentally the only two seats that Congress got from Uttar Pradesh)
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