2019 Poll Debacle: Can Congress Work Under a New Leadership?

After a rather humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is on a hunt of a new identity and a new leadership. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been insisting to resign from his post, despite the party leaders rejecting his offer. The CWC rejected his resignation, saying the party needs his leadership and guidance.

In a piece for the DNA, political commentator and analyst Tehseen Poonawalla carried the postmortem for the Congress and said, while Rahul must continue to lead the party, his team filled with ‘deadweight’ needs to be dismantled.

Referring to his DNA piece, Poonawalla said, he firmly believes that one of the Gandhis, either Rahul or Priyanka, require at this juncture to take the Congress ahead. He said, Rahul has performed better and had more victories as compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the Lok Sabha elections being an exception.

“The problem with Rahul is the office surrounding him, the sycophants who surround him. His office is absolutely juvenile, immature. It does not reflect the office of someone who aspires to become the next prime minister of the country. The kids in his office have no ground connect.”

Tehseen Poonawalla, Political commentator

Slamming the Congress, Poonawalla said their strategy is redundant and that they entertain the dead weights who bring no value to the party.

However, senior journalist Raseed Kidwai brushed-off Poonawalla’s remarks and said, it was a “laughable line of argument.”

“The entire CWC is appointed by Rahul. So, he owns every member of that committee. If he resigns, then all of them should resign. In Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, if a leader of the opposition fails to dislodge the incumbent PM, the leader of the opposition loses. I think Rahul is within his rights and democratic in not only offering to resign but by sticking to it,” Kidwai said.

Further, Kidwai said the grand old party is in need of a shock therapy and that Rahul’s exit is the ideal way forward. “Rahul had once said famously, ‘power is poison.’ Today I’m saying as a commentator, that in Rahul’s context, loyalty has become poison,” Kidwai said.