Rahul clueless, Sonia to rescue

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday saw his position diminished in the Karnataka Assembly elections even as he rushed to 10 Janpath along with his sister Priyanka to take help of his mother and former party president Sonia Gandhi. It was decided then to immediately call up former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda for formation of a coalition government.

Rahul had no face to speak to Deve Gowda or his son, who will be the coalition CM; Gandhi had not only ruled out any kind of alliance with Janata Dal-(Secular) party but even attacked both in the course of the poll campaign. It was Priyanka who reportedly told him to take mother's help when he conveyed that he has no rapport with the Gowdas.

The party sources said it was, however, Rahul who instantly agreed at Sonia’s behest to offer the chief ministership to H D Kumaraswamy despite his party winning just half of the seats bagged by the Congress. Sonia first talked to Ghulam Nabi Azad and asked him to send the feelers to both Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy; then, she spoke to them after getting a positive response.

The development also raised the stature of Sonia Gandhi as the leader who alone can usher in the grand alliance the opposition parties are trying to forge. Congress leaders admitted that Rahul has still not acquired the kind of stature where leaders like Deve Gowda, Sharad Pawar and other opposition leaders can have confidence in him to formulate the strategies.

They said Sonia may be pressed to come back to politics at least for a year despite her falling health to provide a lead to the grand alliance and Rahul will be only too happy as he cannot handle it as yet. He will face the first test in this game in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in November.