Cong wants Rahul to follow in Sanjay Gandhi’s footsteps
Leaders want him to start Opp. movement at grassroots like Sanjay did to bring party back to power in 1980
Congress leaders want party vice- president Rahul Gandhi to emulate his late uncle Sanjay Gandhi, who had revived the fighting spirit among party workers on the people issues during the Janata Party regime and had thus brought it back to power within three years in 1980.
Although it is unclear when a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party would be called to elect its leader in the Lok Sabha, insiders say the days of sitting in the office for Mr Gandhi have now gone. Now, he must take the workers to the streets over omissions of the new Modi government.
“We should not bother whether or not our parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha will get a status of the Leader of Opposition. But Rahul Gandhi must play this role ( in the grassroots)... Let him commit mistakes... but eventually he will be trained,” they said.
A Left leader viewed, the Congress cannot survive without the Gandhi-Nehru family, but the family is not giving any indication of how will it fight with the Narendra Modi challenge inside and outside Parliament.
Congress leaders pri- vately said the leadership cannot afford to delay the organisational restructure because the party has failed to open its account in 15 states that include Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Goa, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
On the other hand, Congress numbers in UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, MP, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh remained in the single digit. “The Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana are around the corner while Delhi can go to the polls any time. The high command must take ‘ corrective steps’ in these states,” they said.
A party officials said it was easy to blame Mrs Gandhi and Rahul for the debacle in the Lok Sabha polls but why they pointed out that Congress’ Union ministers in Tamil Nadu and other states also failed to deliver despite enjoying power for ten years.