Rahul 3.0: Congress President’s Big Hits & Important Misses

How to make new political friends while staying relevant AND not getting swallowed in another possible Modi wave.

Game, Set, Match for 2019. 

(Image: The Quint/Erum Gour)

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam

Note: We promise to stop serialising Rahul Gandhi after this. Rahul 4.0 doesn’t have a ring to it anyway.

In 2017, Rahul Gandhi was well-received at Berkley, Princeton and later in Gujarat, where a series of strategic political moves succeeded in restricting the BJP to under 100 Assembly seats. That it was Prime Minister Modi’s home-state, meant additional bragging rights.

But if the Congress party has to go beyond moral victories, it will need a lot more than just bragging rights. In the six months since taking charge as the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi has made good on his party’s past mistakes, but that’s not to say he hasn’t made any of his own.

Rookie Mistakes

The decision to field candidates for the Phulpur and Gorapkhpur bypolls, where regional rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had already partnered, was doomed to fail. Not only did the Congress lose its deposits in both the seats, it also eroded any bargaining power it may have had with the two parties that are crucial to any anti-Modi alliance for 2019.

The Congress’ confidence continued well into the Karnataka election. But soon after it emerged that the state had thrown up a hung Assembly, the party that was caught napping in Goa and Manipur, was this time, quick on the uptake. The party publicly made an unconditional offer to the Janata Dal (Secular) to form an alliance and stake claim to form the government.

The post-poll alliance was met with a stiff challenge from BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa and an ex-BJP man as governor, whose generosity did not go unnoticed by even the Supreme Court of India. After a week-long bus driving, resort-hopping, and midnight court hearing drama, the Congress-JD(S) alliance triumphed and was sworn-in.

The same grit and gumption, however, was found missing in Tripura, where infighting, lack of resources, an inactive central leadership, a lackluster campaign and the perceived tacit understanding with the Left, saw the state slip easily into the BJP’s hands.

Ceding Political Ground, But At What Cost?

Though timely action in Karnataka helped the party block the BJP’s ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ agenda in the south and the swearing-in ceremony became a de facto launching pad for a united opposition. But, at a cost.

Despite outnumbering the JD(S) by 43 MLAs in the Assembly, the Congress had to give up the chief minister’s position along with coveted portfolios like finance, intelligence, excise and even PWD, to HD Kumaraswamy and the JD(S).

Just how much political space is it willing to concede, is the Congress’ current dilemma.

In Delhi, it has refused to give any ‘political oxygen’ to the Aam Aadmi Party, openly criticising Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s protest at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s residence. However, when alliance partners like HD Kumaraswamy and Mamata Banerjee openly petition PM Modi on behalf of Kejriwal, the fault lines within the yet-to-formally concretised opposition alliance stand completely exposed.

And while Rahul Gandhi’s political rhetoric on how BJP treats its elders, like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, is on point, it won’t do them much good unless the Congress wins back its eroded voter base.

Rahul Gandhi is the first Congress leader in thirty years who seems to be making a conscious attempt to win back the OBC, Dalit and Adivasi vote. This repositioning is crucial if the party expects to revive itself in the Hindi heartland. But completely ignoring its cadres in states like Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, where other regional players are dominant, could be detrimental for its future prospects.