QUESTIONS ON RAHUL’S LEADERSHIP AFTER PRIYANKA INDUCTION

Congress organisation was razed to the ground during Sonia Gandhi’s tenure. With no foot soldiers in the field, there is not much the new general secretary can do.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s formal entry into active politics as Congress general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh is likely to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party, while simultaneously weakening Rahul Gandhi. The belated announcement, which seeks to create an impression that being an appointee of the Congress president, Priyanka would play second fiddle to Rahul, is in sharp contrast to how the party activists would see it. In fact, her induction has created a situation where there are going to be two power centres within the organisation, with a large number of leaders preferring her over her brother, who has been working overtime to bring the party back on the rails.

In plain and simple terms, Rahul may have committed political hara-kiri by assigning her a party position, since it could be detrimental to his own standing. Several Congress veterans, on condition of anonymity, said that they believed that those who had been marginalised by Rahul within the party would now be in an elated state since they had a legitimate route for a comeback. In any case, even in her non official role, Priyanka has, to a good extent, been wielding the baton, and many of the key party functionaries are considered to be closer to her rather than her brother, who has always been the number one choice of their mother and former Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.

There is no doubt that Priyanka has a charismatic dimension to her personality and many people see in her the image of Indira Gandhi, her legendary grandmother. Indira Gandhi herself regarded Priyanka as someone who would lead the country, at some stage or the other, and had verbalised her thoughts to her political adviser, Makhan Lal Fotedar, a few days before she was brutally assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards. Fotedar, who conveyed her sentiments to Sonia Gandhi, was sidelined since she was inclined on promoting Rahul Gandhi as the heir to Indira’s political legacy. Janardan Dwivedi, a trusted aide of Sonia Gandhi, too had voiced his support for Priyanka as a potential leader, but his views were overlooked as well.

In the meanwhile, after being ridiculed as a misfit for over five years, Rahul has carved out a position for himself, which is now under threat. It is evident that he does not possess the wit and repartee of his sister and is viewed as a person who at times puts forth his beliefs without analysing the consequences. In com-