Rahul Gandhi had stepped down as party leader after Congress was decimated in Lok Sabha’s polls.
New Delhi:
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s strategy session with Rajya Sabha’s 40 MPs from her party turned into another “Bring back Rahul Gandhi” session, reflecting her long-standing faith in Nehru-Gandhi’s leadership. The call for Mr Gandhi to return to the top post came as a section of party veterans, including Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, questioned the leadership as the party faced its worst decline.
In recent months, he has lost one of the three Heart States he won in 2018 and battles a crisis in another as Mr Gandhi’s closest aide, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has defected from the BJP and one of the most promising young leaders, Sachin Pilot, rebelled. .
Most of the leaders who attended today’s session – including KC Venugopal, Rajeev Satav, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, GC Chandrashekher – reiterated that the party needs to rebuild itself and that this could be better achieved by l 49-year-old man at the helm.
Ms Gandhi’s close associate, Ahmed Patel, called for a mix of young and old, in leadership roles – a formula that backfired in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The differences between the old guard and the new have kept the party divided since Rahul Gandhi was appointed general secretary of the party in 2007.
In March, Jyotiraditya Scindia visited the BJP with 22 assistants, bringing down the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is fighting to save his government as Sachin Pilot and 18 deputies who are loyal to him broke party ranks. Both leaders complained that they had been mistreated and sidelined by their bosses.
The rift became clearest when Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the former boss of Sachin Pilot, spoke out against young leaders with “beautiful faces” who spoke “good English”.
Today several MPs, including Dijivijaya Singh, said that in states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the “organization” has been hijacked by leaders like Mr. Scindia and Mr. Pilot and should be rebuilt from scratch. “These young people received too many gifts too soon and did not have the walk of the mill,” said sources close to Mr. Singh.
Mr. Gandhi, who has remained largely silent on the unrest within the party, did not attend the session. Sonia Gandhi heard the requests, but did not comment.
Before stepping down as party leader in July last year after his decimation in Lok Sabha’s polls, Mr Gandhi made it clear that neither he nor any member of his family would support the party. In several internal meetings, he said his mother Sonia Gandhi or sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should not be hired in the top post.
But subsequently, Sonia Gandhi, who had remained in the background in recent years due to her health, was persuaded to take over the reins as interim president of the party.
