With successive electoral defeats threatening to send the grand old party into oblivion, the Congress is planning to rejig its top leadership by putting its vice-president Rahul Gandhi in full command. The decision to appoint him as party president is likely to be taken at the proposed AICC session to be held at Bengaluru on April 10.
The issue has divided the party into two camps with one group vowing its loyalty to incumbent Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the other owing allegiance to Rahul Gandhi. A fringe group within the party is also backing Sonia’s daughter Priyanka Vadra for the key role in the party. After the worst-ever electoral defeat in the just-concluded Assembly elections in Delhi, the Congress said the loss has “registered strongly with us” and it will take all steps to establish its connect with people. It promised to “reinvent” itself and revisit its “ideological construct.”
Amidst the speculations, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, a Rahul Gandhi camp follower, said on Saturday it will be entirely Priyanka’s decision to enter active politics. During the two-day introspective meeting at Vijaywada, Singh said Congress workers have full confidence in the leadership of Sonia and Rahul and that it is Priyanka’s decision to join active politics or not.
The Congress has also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of senior-most party leader AK Antony to prepare a socio, economic and political strategy for the party to revitalise its base and bring voters back to the Congress. The analysis of the report will be submitted on February 28 and a final strategy for the AICC will be finalised by mid-March before the AICC Session in April. Amidst the existential crisis, the party is also going through public squabbling. Many veteran leaders have joined the BJP. The example of senior Congress leader Jayanti Natarajan opening a front against the party high command is a pointer to the rumblings within the party.
One of the key organisational men and a close confidant of 10, Janpath, Janardan Dwivedi too seems to be sidelined following his “controversial” remarks to a portal and same was a evident from the fact that he was kept away from the party’s main Central Election Authority meeting recently. Dwivedi has been advocating for Priyanka’s major role in the party citing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s desire to rope in Priyanka for full time Congress politics.
With the party battered in most of the States and in the lok Sabha as well, questions have been raised over the confusion as to who heads the party practically. While Sonia is officially the party’s boss, Rahul plays the larger role in the party’s functioning. Demand to bring in Priyanka Vadra in the mainstream adds to the prevailing confusion.
Senior Congress leader Rajiv Shukla said time has come to introspect and restructure and favoured “drastic steps” to revamp the party in wake of the unprecedented poll debacles. “This (Delhi Assembly) loss has registered strongly with us and we will take all steps to establish our connection with people. The party will rebuild its support among the people with its hard work,” the party said in a statement.