Senior Congress leaders reject Rahul's agitational approach

The Congress party is riven by four different approaches to an issue: the Sonia Gandhi way, the Rahul Gandhi method, Lok Sabha MPs’ tactic, and Rajya Sabha MPs’ style, reports R Rajagopalan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s resounding victory in Madhya Pradesh civic polls is an-eye opener for the Congress,” said a senior Congress leader from the state, interpreting the verdict to mean that the Vyapam campaign by the Congress has not jelled with voters. “Therefore it is the right time for the Congress to introspect."

The Congress, especially its vice president Rahul Gandhi, approached the Vyapam scam in a negative way -- though it helped the party in disrupting Parliament proceedings during the recently concluded monsoon session, it failed to enthuse voters in the civic elections, he pointed out.

While civic poll results are an indicator of the public’s perception about the state government, the Congress had tied up the scandal with the national scenario -- and hence it was a bad strategy by Rahul Gandhi, said the above-mentioned Congress leader.

What worries the old guard is that the Congress will run into a stream of civil body elections alongside the Rajya Sabha, over the next couple of years. “A party with 130 years of political standing does not have the organisational strength required in 18 to 20 states to elect even one or two members to the Rajya Sabha. It is an added insult to the party,” the leader said. 

The year 2016 will see the biennial RS elections from Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, and the end of Congress presence from these states in the Upper House. 

When such a pathetic political situation prevails for the future of the Congress, how do Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka plan to inject enthusiasm among the cadres, and how can the Congress even aspire to become the ruling party in New Delhi in 2019, ask insiders.

Some eight to 10 top Congress leaders with who I interacted gave me the following impression of the situation within the Congress.

1. Some of the old guard who stood with Sonia Gandhi during crises are unhappy with Rahul Gandhi being imposed on the party. “We guarded her, can the same sentiments be expected from the 
first-timers, who are like interns in the Congress, to solidly back Rahul in distress? They will desert him at the first chance,” feel the old guard.

This became explicit during the monsoon session of Parliament, where it was the first-timers who first suggested to Rahul to insist on Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s resignation but retracted once it became known that the disruption was damaging the Congress.

2. Leaders of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Trinamool Congress want the continued presence of Sonia Gandhi at the helm of the Congress. These leaders privately convey that going with Rahul Gandhi’s leadership will be difficult for them and their cadre. Apparently, that is why Sonia Gandhi was compelled to stage a dharna before Mahatma Gandhi’s statue, to assuage the rest of the Opposition that she had not relinquished control over the party. 

3. The Congress has four different styles of approach to any issue. There is the Sonia Gandhi approach, the Rahul Gandhi style, the Lok Sabha MPs approach and that of the Rajya Sabha MPs -- with the result that the party is split in four ways, with four divergent views. 

Senior leaders conveyed to Sonia Gandhi in private that wearing black ribbons and black shirts was not the agitationist style to be adopted by a 130-year-old party. It was due to this internal difference that more than 20 Congress members in the Rajya Sabha did not wear black ribbons. Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is also believed to have told Dr Karan Singh it was due to compelling reasons that he wore the black ribbon. 

4. A few leaders disclosed in private that Sonia Gandhi was not for the disruption of Parliament -- but it was at the insistence of Rahul Gandhi that many went along with the 
idea. Adopting the same tactic, of disrupting Parliament, will not succeed in the Winter or Budget session, they feel.

Efforts by seniors to convince Rahul Gandhi against the idea also failed, two seniors MPs told this correspondent.

5. It is high time that the Congress’s first-time MPs spend more time with the old guard, was a suggestion mooted by a Congress Working Committee member. But who will bell the cat? Does any of the old guard have the guts to appear before Rahul, was his follow-up query.

6. Some Rs 85,000 crore worth of property is held by the All India Congress Committee across the country in trust and the old guard wants this to be streamlined when Sonia is still in charge. The old fears that if the assets pass over to the control of first-timers in the party, which could lead to its own scandals.

There is an AICC trust to look after these properties which is headed by Sonia with Motilal Vora as member. The assets include the Congress’s office buildings in some 300 districts; in state capitals, most of the buildings are in prime locations. 

7. In a nut shell, within the Congress today it is a one-way, and that is Rahul Gandhi’s way. When Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka sit at the dining table and discuss issues, a resolution emerges easily. But the eagerness with which Rahul Gandhi wants to implement the resolution is so quick that the old guard is feeling rattled.

Their consensus: Rahul has to wait till May 2019 for his turn at the top. And to keep in mind that the Bharatiya Janata Party government will not go out easily, especially given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of a ‘Congress-mukht Bharat’.

R Rajagopal is a senior journalist based in New Delhi who has reported on the Congress and Parliament for more than 40 years.