NEW DELHI: Though the leaders of the governing BJP and the Congress spar on most of the issues, they have come to agree on at least one point – to make Rahul Gandhi the president of the principal opposition party.
The election for the post of president of All India Congress Committee (AICC), or the Congress, is scheduled for October 17. But the momentum is already gathering in the party to “force” Rahul to become the party president.
Common refrain of Congress leaders
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot is among the few Congress leaders outside the Nehru-Gandhi family who is being speculated to succeed Sonia Gandhi as the party chief. Even he reiterated that the post should go to Rahul Gandhi instead.
Gehlot said at a conference in Jaipur last month, “If Rahul Gandhi is not made the party chief, it will lead to disappointment among the Congress workers in the country. Many people will sit at home and we will suffer. He (Rahul) should understand the sentiments of the common Congress workers across the country and he himself should accept this post.”
Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid said the Congress leaders would try to persuade Rahul Gandhi to become the party chief.
Khurshid said last month, “Frankly from everybody that I have spoken to or I have sensed their opinion, he (Rahul) remains the number one (choice) and he remains the only one… We haven't got into any conversations beyond that… we have no indications as to whether he will accept our request… When he comes back (from his foreign trip), I am sure we would want to persuade him."
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the Congress leaders would “force him (Rahul)” to come back as party president.
He said, "I have my personal opinion and it is the feeling of all the workers that Rahul Gandhi should become the Congress president. Because he is the only one who can lift the (fortunes of) Congress and unite it... No other Congress leader has a pan-India appeal as he has… We will ask him, we will force him and request him (to return as Congress president). We stand behind him. We will try to pursue him.”
The mood was no different at the ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on September 4. Several speakers favoured Rahul as the next chief of the organisation.
In fact, several supporters in the audience raised placards which read ‘We want Rahul Gandhi as INC (Indian National Congress) president’. The rally was held a few days ahead of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' to commence from Kanyakumari on September 7.
BJP leaders join Congress’s chorus
Not just the veteran Congress leaders but also several BJP leaders have favoured Rahul Gandhi’s return as AICC president, but for different reasons.
The BJP leaders feel it is easier for their party to register victory in the Lok Sabha and the assembly elections with Rahul at the helm of the Congress party.
No wonder then, for example, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said Rahul was a blessing for the BJP. "If you read Ghulam Nabi Azad's letter and the letter I wrote in 2015, you will find a lot of similarities. In Congress, everyone knows Rahul Gandhi is immature, whimsical and unpredictable. Sonia Gandhi is not taking care of the party, she's only trying to promote her son. It is a futile attempt."
"As a result,” Sarma further said, “people loyal to the party are deserting it. I had predicted that a time for Congress will come when only Gandhis will remain in the party and it is happening. Rahul Gandhi is actually a blessing for the BJP."
Similarly, on Mallikarjun Kharge’s comment that “We will force Rahul Gandhi to become Congress chief”, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) national secretary Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga quipped: “We will force too.”
Not just the BJP but Delhi chief minister-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also thinks that propping Rahul as the Congress president will help the party governing at the Centre.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Raghav Chadha said in a TV show, “Rahul Gandhi is the biggest asset of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is most convenient for the BJP to show a Modi versus Rahul contest because in that case the BJP wins hands down. But the moment you put the BJP in a challenge with a formidable force, like the Aam Aadmi Party for example, that is when the real test of democracy happens.”
Even in December 2020, Chadha had maintained that 99.9% of BJP wanted Rahul Gandhi as the Congress president.
Why BJP leaders are pitching for Rahul Gandhi
A senior functionary of the BJP told TOI on the condition of anonymity that Rahul Gandhi’s elevation in the Congress since 2013 has proved to be a boon for their organisation.
He pointed out that Rahul was promoted as Congress vice-president in their party’s meet at Jaipur in January 2013. The Congress-led UPA government was in office at the Centre. The Congress fell to its worst at 44 seats while the BJP-led NDA won in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. With the BJP getting 282 seats, it was after 30 years that a party had won a majority.
Again, in December 2017, Rahul was further elevated as Congress president in December 2017 in the midst of the Gujarat assembly election. The Congress fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election with Rahul as their prime ministerial candidate.
The Congress won 52 seats, slightly better than its tally in 2014. But BJP’s tally went up to a whopping 303.
The BJP leader said, “If Rahul takes over as the Congress president on October 17, it would be a few weeks ahead of the Gujarat assembly election and about one-and-a-half years before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Be it the Lok Sabha or the assembly elections, the results are going to be the same. The BJP will pip the Rahul-led Congress.”
He accused Rahul Gandhi of losing credibility among the voters and authority upto a large extent within the Congress itself. “Not all are ready to accept him as the party president. Rahul does not command the same awe which he did in 2014 or even in 2019. This is the reason why old guard leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad or young leaders such as Jaiveer Shergill are quitting the Congress. But for the BJP, Rahul is a lucky mascot,” he said.
