The reluctant leader back to the fore

Sonia grapples with two challenges – the fact that her son and heir apparent, has failed to show leadership and second, ensuring that the Congress leads a strong anti-BJP faction.

Venkatesh Kesari

In a sign that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi has realised that her heir apparent Rahul Gandhi lacks the wherewithal to unite the anti-BJP parties and create an alternative to the ruling party at the national level before the next general election, Ms Gandhi’s informal meet with opposition leaders earlier this week sends off one signal - the move to neutralise the West Bengal Chief minister Mamta Banerjee has begun in earnest.

In the first such move after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day trip to Varanasi and the inauguration of Kashi Vishwanath corridor that has strengthened the Hindutva plank in pollbound Uttar Pradesh and other states, Sonia is trying to replicate what she had achieved in 2003-2004. But this is 2021. Can she pull off what she did a decade and a half ago?

Sonia Gandhi’s early success in building an anti-BJP front within four months after the Congress lost power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in November –December 2003 and the United Progressive Alliance came into existence in April-May 2004 that defeated the Atal Behari Vajpayee led NDA, looks easy. She had allied with the Sharad Pawar led NCP, the DMK known for its anti-Congress and anti Nehru- Gandhi family stance in Tamil Nadu, cosied up to the Samajwadi Party and kept the Left in good humour outside West Bengal, Kerala ,Tripura. At the time, she had even allied with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and won united Andhra Pradesh assembly polls, and simultaneously, the maximum Lok Sabha seats from the state.

But Rahul Gandhi is cut from a different cloth. He has not succeeded yet in bringing the anti-BJP parties together. And this is compelling Sonia Gandhi, who is in semi-retirement and has avoided meeting people, shunned party leaders and workers from her own party, kept away from campaigning in elections and even addressing her party rallies in a bid to ensure Rahul-Priyanka settle in politics, to re-enter the political fray. Her meeting last Tuesday was attended by Sharad Pawar (NCP), T R Balu (DMK), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Dr Farooq Abdullah (National Conference) and Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) besides, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, according to insiders. But the Mamata Bannerjee led Trinamool Congress, AAP, Samajwadi Party and the RJD were the notable absentees. One can understand why the Trinamool Congress was not invited and even if it was invited the party would not have attended the meeting after declaring the UPA is over. Missing was not just the Trinamool but the Samajwadi Party, and AAP. These parties are fighting the coming assembly elections against the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa and thus would not like to ally with the Sonia Gandhi led party at this juncture. The BSP, the TRS, the Janata Dal (S) too are also distancing themselves from the Congress for different reasons. The Congress’ Chintan Shivir at Panchmarhi held soon after Sonia Gandhi became the party chief in 1998 had decided on Ekla Chalo (to go it alone). The next Chintan Shivir held at Shimla before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, shifted a little by sending out a message of unity of anti BJP parties.

The last session of parliament had seen a semblance of unity among the anti NDA parties inside the two Houses. This time the deep divisions among them have already come to the fore. Insiders say the picture could become clearer after the elections in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. But that still doesn’t take away from the big question. Can Sonia Gandhi revive the fighting spirit of opposition, and if she does manage to pull it off once again, where would that leave Rahul Gandhi ? Principal beneficiary, or lost to posterity?

(Venkatesh Kesari is a long time commentator on all things political)