Congress continues to be divided over Rahul comeback

As matters stand, the politics could gravitate towards making a non-gandhi as the party president.

A clear division has surfaced amongst Congress MPS over the reinstatement of Rahul Gandhi as the party president. The Rajya Sabha MPS, who met through a virtual conference earlier in the week, did not give a thumbs up to Rahul, as opposed to those in the Lok Sabha, who some days ago had endorsed his leadership. However, at the Rajya Sabha meeting, some younger leaders such as Rajiv Satav, wanted the record to be put straight regarding the 2014 Lok Sabha election loss, which they attributed to the performance of the UPA 2 government. The implication was that many of the seniors, who apparently were not supportive of the idea of bringing Rahul back, and thus spoke in ambiguous terms, were as much to blame for the Congress rout in the polls as anyone else.

Significantly, there was nobody who mentioned Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s name as a possible successor to Sonia Gandhi, probably out of fear of upsetting the current interim president. It is a well-known fact that Sonia Gandhi has been pushing for Rahul’s return even though he seems reluctant to occupy the august position. He is comfortable speaking his mind on various issues but is not willing to accept responsibility.

The feedback received by the Congress high command is, that the party workers, by and large, identify themselves with Rahul as and when he speaks out and attacks the Narendra Modi government on various issues. Their view is that he is the only one who has shown ample courage to adopt a critical approach, while most of the seniors, by their conspicuous silence, appear to be colluding with the BJP and are concerned only about their own survival rather than the revival of the party.

Strangely, the Rajya Sabha MPS’ meeting failed to take any stand regarding the construction of the Ram