As Rahul Gandhi Shies Away, Can Sonia Gandhi Salvage Congress바카라� Sinking Ship?

On May 25, stung by the humiliating rout of his party in the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi told the party바카라�s working committee that he was stepping down as Congress president. Rejecting calls for his continuance in ­office, Rahul gave his party collea­gues a month to find his replacement who could then carry on with the task of restructuring the organisation; making it battle-ready in time for the assembly elections due in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jhar­khand later this year.

That deadline for naming Rahul바카라�s successor has gone by and the Congress is nowhere near resolving its leadership crisis as it was on May 25. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun his second stint in office; the BJP has elected J.P. Nadda as its working president to assist Amit Shah in preparations for the assembly polls, lynching cases by goons have made a comeback and skeletons of India바카라�s economic crisis, that had been stacked in the government바카라�s cupboard before the general elections, have begun to tumble out.

With the newly elected Lok Sabha바카라�s monsoon session in progress, the Congress, once again short of numbers to stake claim for the post of leader of Opposition, was compelled to name five-term Berhampore MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as its leader in the House바카라�a position Rahul declined to take. Chowdhury told Outlook (see interview) that there is 바카라�no dearth of issues바카라� on which the party can corner the Modi government and that despite a bloc of just 52 MPs, the Congress will be an effective Opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

There is no denying that in little over 30 days since being sworn in, the Modi government has plenty to answer for, particularly since its term in office is a continuum of the past five years. And, this is where the Congress바카라� sustained inertia and the abyss of hopelessness that the electoral debacle has plunged it into are most visible. 바카라�We have ­assembly polls coming up but there is no clarity on who will lead the party. We should have hit the streets running after the Lok Sabha drubbing to show that we are prepared for the battles ahead but our president has shut himself in a room, adamant on abandoning ship,바카라� a senior Congress leader from poll-bound Maharashtra confessed to Outlook.

Soon after the Lok Sabha defeat, the Congress Working Committee had met, as was expected, to assess the reasons for the rout. State units had been told to do the same and apprise the central leadership of corrective measures taken. Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra바카라�s pointed accusation that Congress workers didn바카라�t work hard to win the election바카라�Rahul lost his family seat of Amethi바카라�has only caused more heartburn in the few cadres that remain. Sources say several party leaders in Uttar Pradesh are now in touch with the BJP, waiting to defect. There are stray signals of a revamp바카라�the dissolution of the Karnataka Congress unit and the district committees in UP, for ­instance바카라�but none that show the party바카라�s resolve to beat the trauma of its decimation.

Instead, the weeks gone by have seen the grand old party바카라�s typical ego battles come to the fore again. In Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Kamal Nath, whose government has a wafer-thin majority, is publicly being held ­responsible for the party바카라�s poll rout by loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia. The brinkmanship between Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy, Sachin Pilot, is a daily affair. Pilot has now begun a statewide yatra which many believe is his way of ­asserting that he is the more popular leader.

In poll-bound Maharashtra and Haryana, sources say, infighting ­between rival camps has made the BJP hopeful of poaching more Congress leaders while in Karnataka, Sidda­ramaiah continues to rile his party colleagues, keeping alliance partner JD (S) and chief minister H.D. Kumara­swamy on notice.

The fault lines are even more worrisome at the central level, with the Congress once again divided between the old guard loyal to Sonia and those who were handpicked by Rahul to run the affairs of his ­office and the party. These squabbles, sources say, were responsible for the numerous media reports that surfaced over the past week accusing Rahul-confidante and the party바카라�s data analytics department head, Praveen Chakravarty, of being 바카라�a BJP mole in the Congress바카라�. Chakravarty has also been accused as the man who 바카라�misled Rahul about the party바카라�s prospects in the elections바카라�.

The CWC is expected to meet again in the coming week to, once again, urge Rahul to stay put. However, ­assuming that Rahul won바카라�t budge, sources say, multiple options are ­already under consideration바카라�including setting up a college of working presidents and establishing a parliamentary board that would take key decisions related to the functioning of the Congress.

In December 2017, when Rahul took over as Congress president, Sonia had famously told media persons that 바카라�my role now is to retire바카라�. But the debacle of the Rahul-led 2019 campaign has forced his mother to defer her plans. The matriarch, Congress sources say, has once again assumed command. For Sonia, the crisis that her party is faced with is familiar, though way more enhanced. She had first become party president in 1997 when the Congress footprint was shrinking and showed that she had the mettle needed to steer the party back to power. This time round, the footprint isn바카라�t just shrinking, it is on the brink of invisibility. The catalyst for this erosion isn바카라�t just her own party but the politically ruthless Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo바카라�their dream of a Congress-mukt (free) Bharat still unfulfilled.

Whether Rahul stays on as Congress president or goes may yet be a tough question to answer but Congress sources say Sonia is again the leader to watch out for. The future course of the party, insiders say, will be chalked out by her. But will it ensure the party바카라�s revival once again? It바카라�s a tough ask as India 2019 is a different country.