Rahultounveilblueprint for revival of Congress
PARTY PLENARY During the 3day session, the party will pass four resolutions on political and economic fronts, foreign policy and agriculture and unemployment
Is the Congress ready to shed its status quoist tag and take hard decisions as it prepares to fight a rampaging Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections?
The answer could be in the affirmative if Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s choice of candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections is any indication.
Selecting the “right” candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls was a key test for 47-year-old Rahul — who took over the reins of the grand old party from his mother Sonia Gandhi on December 16, 2017 — to demonstrate that his writ runs large in the organisation.
Rahul withstood all the pulls and pressures to nominate local leaders in the elections, ignoring some well-entrenched colleagues in the process.
The move kindled hope among workers that the Congress chief was willing to take tough decisions in the party’s interest.
This is where Rahul’s style of functioning is different from his mother’s; Sonia Gandhi would try not to antagonise the “Delhi coterie” and at times, ignore aspiring regional leaders.
“Rahulji’s decision to field local leaders in Rajya Sabha elections has gone down well with the rank and file. It marks a significant shift in the party’s policies when it came to rewarding loyalists and hardworking local workers,” senior Congress leader from Bihar Kishore Kumar Jha said.
“I am confident this will also check the growth of paratroopers and opportunists who seek all the benefits and then desert the party at critical times. The move will also encourage regional leaders to put in more effort on the ground and work for the party’s revival across the country,” he said.
Commenting on Rahul’s style of functioning, his mother had told a gathering at the India Today Conclave recently that
NEW DELHI: TO RECONNECT WITH FARMERS AND THE YOUNG, CONGRESS WILL ATTACK THE MODI GOVT BY HIGHLIGHTING THE AGRARIAN CRISIS
AND UNEMPLOYMENT
every person had a particular style of working.
“There are no such differences with him. After all, the Congress has a certain policy that we follow,” she had said.
“Rahul has always been keen on revitalising the party and having younger and newer people. That does not mean sidelining older people but having a balance,” the former Congress chief had said.
Political experts said it was too early to judge Rahul but maintained that his “periodic absences and silences” were some issues that he needed to address. “Sonia has a very mature political sense. She had much more experience and whenever she intervened, it was with a purpose,” said Delhibased political analyst professor Balveer Arora.
“Rahul is still perfecting his style. He is working on it and seems to have made some improvements but the main problem in his case is lack of consistency. In politics, one has to be consistent. You can’t shine on some occasions and be totally lacklustre on other days,” he said. Arora insisted that Rahul would have to spell out his plans to revive the Congress, which suffered a series of electoral setbacks since the crushing defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Rahul is expected to present a blueprint and roadmap for the party’s revival at the three-day plenary to be held in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, beginning Friday.
The plenary will not only ratify his election as Congress president but also set the tone for the party’s poll strategy in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections to throw out the BJP. The roadmap, according to a leader who did not want to be named, will be a “guiding light” for party workers and also specify the strategy to be adopted while striking alliances with “like-minded” parties to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
During the three-day session, the party will pass four resolutions on political and economic fronts, foreign policy and agriculture and unemployment. The Congress will also pledge for special status to Andhra Pradesh.
To reconnect with farmers and the young, who had moved away from it over the years, the Congress will attack the Modi government by highlighting the agrarian crisis and unemployment.
On the opening day on Friday, top Congress leaders who are a part of the steering committee — which was formed in place of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) — will discuss the resolutions and chalk out the agenda for the session. Rahul will also take a call on whether to take the election route to reconstitute the CWC or continue with the nomination culture.