The congress election is turning out to be a match fixed as the Gandhis' back Mallikarjun Kharge

The congress election is drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. Though a benign exercise in making the party more democratic and showing that the Gandhi's are  not inflicting, is not carrying much weight. It all started well as Shashi Tharoor and Ashok Gehlot were in the fray but after the Gehlot debacle the high command sort of backed Mallikarjun Kharge as their man Friday. This is as bad as having Gandhi at the helm of affairs. And this is precisely the reason the congress election is being watched so eagerly by one and all. Sonia Gandhi initially said that she did not support any candidate but it all changed after Gehlot revolt.  Her covert support to Kharge at the last hour made it clear that Gandhis wanted to have a loyalist as the party chief. This could have been triggered by the open revolt by Ashok Gehlot who played his cards well.  In any case, Kharge was cut out for the job and wondered why he was not thought of in the first place. He comes from Karnataka and his scheduled caste status is a bonus in the run-up to the general elections. Besides, the one consideration that weighs in his favor is his unflinching loyalty to the first family. He is perhaps the only dependable guy the congress leadership has.

At the age of 80, unlike Shashi Tharoor, he is bereft of ambition and is widely accepted in the party for his nonpartisan stance. Besides, he is noncontroversial and no motor mouth like Digvijaya Singh who has a habit of landing in trouble every time he opens his mouth much to the consternation of the party's high command. Juxtaposed to the congress the BJP got its party chief nominated JP Nadda once again without any fuss. Since it was a decision of the top bosses, it was undemocratic to the core; especially for the party which calls itself ‘party with a difference.’ In this regard, congress gets some brownie points. Congress often draws flak for being Gandhi-Nehru family’s private firm but the fact remains that there has been a number of non-Gandhi  presidents in the party and they were no dummies. Even during Jawaharlal Nehru’s years a lot of Congress presidents did not endorse his views. The congress has at least shown some semblance of democracy in the party by conducting president elections though if Mallikarjun Kharge is elected with a heavy margin it would look like a match fixed at the behest of the Gandhi family.