In 2016, Rahul Gandhi had said, "Narendra Modi talked about good days to come but the country is reeling under drought and farmers are committing suicide....Modi has nothing to say".
The fact of the matter is today in circa 2024 -- weeks before first round of voting across many states - honestly Rahul Gandhi has nothing to say. At least from electoral point of view.
The last decade the Congress or Rahul Gandhi himself did not try to 'learn' any lesson and take corrective steps. I know very senior Congress leaders and even a host of ex Congress leaders who say the grand old party has only 'wasted time' on Rahul. Perhaps even from the 'family' Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could have been a better option -- but any such move was cleverly - giving numerous excuses - was stalled. Ultimately, posterity will blame Sonia Gandhi's blind faith and love for Rahul.
Historians and biographers of Congress leaders will also blame how the entire party simply decided not to 'fix' any accountability for Rahul. After 2019 party's defeat, he gave up as Congress president. But that seems a fixed and pre-planned staged drama between mother-son duo. It is ultimately Rahul who calls the shot and hence no one is able to take the aging Mallikarjun Kharge seriously.
One school of thought believes the Congress party missed a chance when Shashi Tharoor was declined the opportunity to face a free and fair internal elections. It was a typical case of 'fixed' match wherein Kharge won and the remote control machine remained with Rahul.
A selective way to interpret election outcome and assisted by grossly anti-Modi English media have only harmed the Congress from a long term perspective.
The Congress defeat in Gujarat in 2022 and three northeastern states of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura were suitably ignored. A victory in the big southern state of Karnataka in May 2023 was 'touted' by the 'ecosystem' as the beginning of Congress party's revival journey.
In December 2023, Congress was humbled in three Hindi-heartland states of Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Though Congress won Telangana — which has only 17 Lok Sabha seats; the results prompted soul searching within the party instead. But introspection is never something Rahul Gandhi did ever.
Insiders say -- arguably the line from Rahul camp is -- the boss is always right and there is no need to change the course of media spins and efforts to create a typical anti-Modi narratives. Time and again these narratives have boomeranged.
But the refrain from the Rahul camp in a series of public appearances either during Bharat Jodo Yatras or during overseas trips is to target Narendra Modi directly.
The repeated formula did not work much. In 2019 - the slogan 'Desh ka Chowkidar' simply had no takers. And for linking Modi's name on Rafale purchase issue, in fact, he also had to tender an apology in the court. Yet Rahul has not changed.
In 2023, he made yet another personal attack linking Rahul Gandhi to industrialist Gautam Adani. He even did not seem to appreciate that the Adani group was keen to invest even in Congress-ruled Telangana.
Rahul did not show the urgency to pick up a few corrective steps to handle polls in 2019 and prior to that even in the key state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
The BJP not only wrested power in India's most populous state; it had Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister and he is also a great vote catcher like Namo.
In the process, the challenge for Rahul Gandhi, the public face of Congress' comeback and even 'opposition revival' in 2022 was to make up the lost ground in time for the biggest test like in Uttar Pradesh, home to around 200 million people. Yet again, Modi-Yogi duo delivered for the saffron party.
In 2022, the hara kiri in Punjab was massive as a dedicated Congress chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh was shown the door. Here the grapevine is Priyanka-Rahul differences had played up at its height and turncoat and a half serious politics of immaturity of Navjot Singh Sidhu was trusted.
edit ...... zzzz Modi has set a target of 370 seats for the BJP and 400-plus for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) it heads in the 543-member lower house of parliament, up from the 303 the BJP won and more than the 350 the NDA won in 2019.
The 2019 performance was the best ever for the party which was formed in 1980.
Modi will be challenged by an alliance of some two dozen opposition parties led by the main opposition Congress party called INDIA or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
The alliance formed last year has, however, been struggling to stay united and share seats amicably. Congress, which has ruled India for 54 of its 76 years since independence from Britain, has sunk to record lows after Modi swept to power and is struggling to revive support.
The party is highlighting unemployment, rural distress, what it says is crony capitalism, the need for more affirmative action for the so-called backward castes and the need to end religious polarisation and hate in its pitch to defeat Modi.
“This will perhaps be the last chance to save democracy and our constitution from dictatorship,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X.
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| Notes from past |
Notes from past:
The 2007 elections in Gujarat revealed that Narendra Modi was not only a new kind of politician, he also represented a new kind of politics. By playing on notions of Gujarati nationalism and pride, by sustaining an anti-Muslim mood and by building a personality cult that appealed to both the urban middle class and the "Gujarati" voter, Modi seemed to be reinventing politics. Is Gujarat a forerunner of politics in all of India? -- Christophe Jaffrelot - 'Economic and Political Weekly'
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