Every week after the Congress’s humiliating defeat within the 2014 Lok Sabha election, one of many get together’s younger Turks who additionally occurred to have been a minister in each regimes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), advised India Today: “Now Pappu will understand what it means to be in politics. It’s not easy surviving in the Opposition camp.” Pappu, after all, is a derogatory reference to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, popularised in social media by his detractors.
Every week after the Congress’s humiliating defeat within the 2014 Lok Sabha election, one of many get together’s younger Turks who additionally occurred to have been a minister in each regimes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), advised India Today: “Now Pappu will understand what it means to be in politics. It’s not easy surviving in the Opposition camp.” Pappu, after all, is a derogatory reference to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, popularised in social media by his detractors.
The remark was later withheld on the chief’s request, however it was one of many first indicators of disgruntlement among the many youthful lot who had come to the fore after Rahul joined politics in 2004. While the Gandhi scion has ‘survived’—even helmed the get together at one level regardless of the a number of electoral debacles since that disastrous summer time of 2014—a number of leaders of his era, together with the minister who had made the aforementioned remark, have abandoned Rahul and the get together.
On January 25, R.P.N Singh turned solely the most recent member of ‘Team Rahul’ to abandon the Congress ship. This bold coterie took form in July 2003 at a three-day chintan shivir (brainstorming session) of the Congress in Shimla. At the shivir, a Congress normal secretary recognized for his proximity to the Gandhi household, had gone round asking the individuals to call younger Congressmen who might be groomed as future leaders. On the ultimate day of the session, on July 9, a number of names have been scribbled on a bit of paper—Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and R.P.N. Singh. They have been anticipated to work intently with Rahul, and all of them, apart from two others—Ajay Maken and Manish Tewari—got tickets to contest the Lok Sabha election in 2004 during which Rahul too made his debut. Five years later, two extra names—Jitendra Singh and Milind Deora—have been added to the listing made up largely of scions of political dynasties.
Rahul now not depends on the counsel of any specific chief and has adopted what one chief calls a horses-for-courses strategy
Nearly 20 years later, his staff—all of whom have served as Union ministers—has disintegrated. Three of them—Scindia, Prasada and RPN—have joined the BJP. Pilot and Deora have expressed discontent on many events. Tewari, one of many Group of 23 leaders who had written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 in search of an overhaul of the get together organisation and management, has not been given any important project regardless of being a senior chief within the Lok Sabha. Only Maken and Jitendra Singh have proven unwavering dedication to Rahul although they too haven’t gained a single election since 2014.
Apart from the unique staff, down the years, Rahul additionally backed a number of different younger women and men, giving them important roles within the get together. A 38-year-old Ashok Tanwar, who was additionally a former Youth Congress president, was made president of the Haryana Congress. Sushmita Dev, daughter of Gandhi household loyalist and former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, was made head of the All India Mahila Congress. Both joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) final yr. Though not one of the breakaway leaders has publicly uttered a phrase in opposition to Rahul, sources attribute their disillusionment to the latter’s management fashion and the failure of the get together to give you a story that may appeal to voters.
Privately, many complain that the Congress chief might be ‘flighty’, periodically altering his advisors and selling a brand new coterie whereas others fall off the radar. Also, as soon as he turns his again on somebody, it turns into very tough to get an viewers once more. After shedding endurance, and belief, with many, Rahul now doesn’t depend on the counsel of any specific chief and has adopted what one chief describes as a horses-for-courses strategy. “This is making his decisions seem more random. One day he is consulting Jairam Ramesh, the next K.C. Venugopal. A party decision can even be made after a casual conversation with someone from another party, like CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. This is making his own leaders restless,” says a CWC (Congress Working Committee) member.
Rahul’s supporters dismiss such criticism and declare “the deserters” moved as a result of they couldn’t even shield their very own constituencies. “The party continued to give tickets and whatever else they wanted to these leaders. Rahul and Priyanka campaigned for some of them too. But they spent little time on party work in their constituencies, so they kept losing. How can Rahul be blamed for this?” asks a Lok Sabha MP from the get together. While Scindia and Sushmita gained the 2014 Lok Sabha ballot, they misplaced in 2019. Prasada, Tanwar and Jitendra Singh have been shedding since 2014.
Several Congress leaders even declare that the notion that these leaders have been near Rahul was a “carefully cultivated PR exercise”. They have been seen shifting round with him in Parliament across the identical time he turned a Lok Sabha member for the primary time, and he interacted extra with them as a result of they have been his contemporaries. “As a leader, Rahul is very affectionate towards his colleagues. Many among us misunderstand it as a passport to get the positions we aspire for. But when it comes to party and organisation, he keeps the larger interest in mind and doesn’t practise favouritism. Then the so-called friends get upset and blame him for their inability to deliver,” says Lok Sabha MP and Congress CWC member Manickam Tagore.
Besides the shrinking electoral capital, what troubled these former associates was the gradual sidelining throughout the get together organisation. The get together’s de facto chief apparently additionally didn’t intervene to guard their “valid concerns”. In 2018, Rahul selected veteran Kamal Nath over Scindia because the chief ministerial alternative for Madhya Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, Prasada sought to place himself as a Brahmin chief. But when Priyanka Gandhi turned normal secretary in-charge of UP, he discovered he had no position in her scheme of issues. Former royal and Kurmi chief R.P.N. Singh was concerned in a turf struggle with state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu whose meeting constituency Tamkuhi Raj falls inside Kushi Nagar, the Lok Sabha constituency RPN contests from. Lallu, by the way, is an in depth confidant of Priyanka.
Tanwar was upset as a result of he was eliminated as Haryana Congress president in 2019. Rahul additionally did little to guard him in opposition to state satraps corresponding to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had allegedly made issues tough for Tanwar. But, as a Congress MP from Haryana asks, “Why does he blame others when he could not win his own seat twice?”
Many throughout the get together admit that Sushmita Dev’s departure was necessitated by the altering sociopolitical state of affairs in Assam’s Barak Valley the place her constituency, Silchar, falls. The Barak Valley is dominated by Bangla-speaking Hindus and Muslim. Most of the immigrant Hindus assist the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, however the Congress is in opposition to it. Though Sushmita took a separate stand from the Congress on the difficulty, this was not sufficient to persuade the Hindu vote financial institution. Weighing her choices, she selected to affix the TMC, which is wooing voters as a celebration for the Bangla-speaking inhabitants in Assam, regardless of their faith.
The desertions haven’t affected the get together a lot however they’ve prompted an enormous dent within the political model fairness of Rahul Gandhi
Congress insiders say not like Scindia, who was instrumental in dethroning the Congress authorities in MP, the opposite turncoats is not going to trigger any important injury to the get together. Scindia and Sushmita have taken the Rajya Sabha path to Parliament whereas Prasada entered the higher home of the UP legislature. RPN and Tanwar are nonetheless undecided on their future plan of action. But the desertions have prompted an enormous dent within the political model fairness of Rahul Gandhi as these leaders have been perceived to be near him.
The redemption will now depfinish on his newest gamble—choosing Charanjit Singh Channi because the Congress CM candidate for Punjab and ignoring the mercurial Navjot Singh Sidhu. Just months in the past, Sidhu was the chosen soldier of Rahul and Priyanka of their plan to neutralise former chief minister Amarinder Singh. The outcomes of the Punjab meeting election will decide whether or not this new transfer was a masterstroke or one other dud by the perennial prince of the get together. n
