Rahul gets ready to play the balancing act
With no other challenger in sight and Shehzad Poonawala, the Congressman who (being married into the Vadra household) was thought to represent some unidentified interest withdrawing the gauntlet, there is hardly any doubt that on December 11 or 12 Rahul Gandhi will become the new President of the Congress.
There are anxieties, fears and hopes.
“What role will Sonia Gandhi play now?” asked a former chief minister. For many, the end of one era and the beginning of another would not be the smooth transition they were hoping for.
Congress units in several states — Karnataka for instance — set great store by Sonia Gandhi who “listened to our voice with patience and understanding”. Here, Rahul is a relatively unknown entity. If the Congress loses Karnataka, where elections are due next year, it would have lost the only major state where it is in power, other than Punjab.
If the outgoing Congress president represents one pole of power in the party, another is represented by sister Priyanka Vadra. Congressmen said a difference of opinion between the brother and sister was clear during the Uttar Pradesh elections and the line on the Samajwadi Party. While Priyanka initially disapproved of the alliance that forced her to share the platform with the likes of Jaya Bachchan, it was Rahul who was talked into it, some say, quite easily. Priyanka then confined herself to her traditional role of campaigning only in the family constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli. “But even she knows she has to secure Rehan (her son)’s future,” said a Congressman.
As President, Rahul is already placing his team in place, but without pain to the old guard. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot and Meira Kumar are expected to play a senior advisory role. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram are also expected to be advisors. Top Congress sources said the public faces — the general secretaries — were likely to be newer and younger: Milind Deora (ex-MP, Mumbai), Meenakshi Natarajan (ex-MP Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh), Jitendra Singh (Alwar). Others who would be a key part of Team Rahul include Sushmita Dev (making the feisty MP the Mahila Congress chief helped revive the staid frontal organisation),