In October 2017, months before he became Congress president, Rahul Gandhi instructed a meeting in Gujarat that the loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections changed into a significant aspect to have happened to him. “The BJP thrashed and abused me so much that it opened my eyes,” he stated in an alternative self-reflective tone. The lesson he learned from that route stayed with him, and he would repeat it in his following interactions. He projected himself as an antithesis to Narendra Modi, and his campaigns during the meeting elections in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh positioned Congress again on course.
However, Modi used Gandhi’s antithesis-pushed strategy to gain in the Lok Sabha elections this year. An astute flesh presser, he wove a story of naamdaar instead of kaamdaar (dynast vs. worker), which won overwhelming support from the citizens. This time, Congress’s defeat was harsher for Rahul, who had led the celebration from the front. He took “a hundred in line with cent duty” for the terrible display, which saw the celebration prevailing simply 52 seats. Rahul stated he might step down as Congress president, but the declaration most effectively deepened the festival’s crisis.
A month after the consequences, THE WEEK spoke to party leaders who were to come back to terms with the rout. “I sense we truly don’t realize what is happening in politics,” said former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid. “This defeat is so undeserved. What did we do to entail this sort of terrible defeat?” A former member of Congress’s social media group said the consequences have been worse than its projected worst-case situation. “Before counting votes, we have been invited to the Congress war room at 15 Gurudwara Rakabganj Road for a get-collectively to watch the effects,” said the member.
“There became an air of expectancy. Everyone believed a negative display might place Congress numbers around one hundred seats.” Said Pawan Bansal, who contested from Chandigarh: “Even now, wherever I cross, people ask ‘what happened. Everyone strongly believed that I would win.” What has been extra disconcerting is how Rahul’s solution to step down has rendered Congress rudderless. “The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will determine [on party president]. That choice will [determine] the direction,” stated Madhusudan Mistry, a Rajya Sabha member who’s taken into consideration near Rahul.
While liberal intellectuals have criticized Rahul for his inability to stop the BJP, no Congressman has overtly revolted towards him. Everyone is looking at whether or not the birthday celebration can live on without Gandhi at the helm. Many in the birthday celebration, just like the Youth Congresspeople who recently gathered outside Rahul’s residence, traumatic that he stay on as president, suppose it will not.
“Just due to the fact a person loses, it does not mean it’s miles the end,” said Mistry. “Look at Brazil. They misplaced 7-1 inside the [FIFA] World Cup [semifinal against Germany in 2014]. But that doesn’t mean they gave up. They fought on.” P.L. Punia, senior chief and a permanent invitee to the CWC, stated, “What Rahul is announcing is that there should be greater leaders coping with duties. In the BJP, they have got Modi, [party president] Amit Shah, and even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Here, it became the handiest for Rahul Gandhi to take them on. He wants to delegate [duties].”
While the exact nature of delineating duties is still no longer precise, some symptoms of change are being seen. On June 19, Congress disbanded the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee while retaining Dinesh Gundu Rao as the country president and Eshwar Khandre as a working president. On June 24, K.C. Venugopal, the birthday party’s countrywide fashionable secretary in fee of the agency, introduced disbanding all district units in Uttar Pradesh. The selection was made after review meetings held by Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the two popular secretaries in charge of the country.
The Congress’s legislative birthday celebration leader, Ajay Kumar Lallu, has made organizational modifications in Uttar Pradesh East. A separate committee will look at alleged acts of indiscipline by way of partymen. A not-unusual strategic thread connects the changes in Karnataka and UP. Congress has either retained or entrusted an obligation to elected representatives to message achievers that they could be rewarded. The appointment of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five-time M.P. from West Bengal, as chief of the birthday party in the Lok Sabha sends a similar message. An assertive leader, Chowdhury, is anticipated to assign the treasury benches aggressively.
