Rahul Gandhi looks for a long innings in politics

11 March, 2013

Rahul Gandhi, born on 19 June 1970 is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. He is now the Vice President of Indian National Congress party. He is also the Chairman of the Congress Coordination Panel for 2014 and the grandson of Feroz Gandhi and Indira Gandhi (3rd Prime Minister of India). A fourth-generation scion of the politically powerful Nehru-Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi is the son of Rajiv Gandhi (6th Prime Minister of India), is still a bachelor, and is the son of Sonia Gandhi.

In March 2004, Rahul Gandhi announced his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the May 2004 elections, standing for his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament. In 2007, he became the general secretary of Indian Youth Congress and in 2008, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily mentioned “Rahul-as-PM” idea when the PM of India Manmohan Singh was still abroad. Since then Rahul is talking about reforms.

Coming to the real point of Rahul’s politics and strategy, one thing is clear that he wants a change at the grassroot level by giving powers also but at the same time, he also wants to strengthen the party. Thus, the problems diagnosed so far are of leadership in the party, strengthening of organization and strategies to be adopted. The Jaipair ‘Chintan Shivir’ was in fact a ‘Chinta Shivir’ but lacks the introspection from the point of view of the elections.

In view of poor performance of Congress party in the past and recently in bye elections, the stage is not easy for Congress to get support of aam admi. To become the prime minister was/ is not a problem for Rahul, but he refused to accept the post through the back door entry as he wanted a mandate also. Moreover, he wants to play a long inning in the politics and concentrating on strengthening the organizations by following the foot-paths of Gandhiji who motivated and took along all categories of people.

On the other hand, Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat is a very strong candidate and the biggest opposition BJP, is very strongly indicating him, though indirectly, as its prime ministerial candidate. Congress is not a revolutionary party but election focus party, and Rahul Gandhi has to establish himself as a strong candidate to show his strength in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul Gandhi's elevation from Congress general secretary to vice president and a possible prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections has been on the cards for some time now. And while his appointment and speech at the recently concluded Chintan Shivir in Jaipur has enthused Congress cadres, the big question remains: Will allies accept him for the top post? Not surprisingly, neither party has so far openly spoken of who would be their prime ministerial candidates in 2014.

Since, much would depend on the number of seats each party gets in the elections, there would be tremendous competition between the two major outfits to emerge as the single largest party and the single largest pre-poll formation to get an invite from the president to explore the possibility of forming a government, if there is a fractured mandate as most people believe would happen. Efforts would be on even before the elections and more intensely after it to get supporters outside the alliance network.

No doubt, the sincerity and commitment, both are there with Rahul Gandhi and the problems have also been diagnosed but the ideology is lacking. Democracy is termed as one of the best systems in the world but Rahul thinks of long term innings strategy, which could be beneficial for society, nation and democracy, as well.