After the Congress roadshow...

Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s Varanasi roadshow in August was important for more than one reason for both the party and its leaders. Banished from Uttar Pradesh governance for 27 long years, the Congress has been praying for an opportunity and a window that could start the process of its recovery and being relevant in State Assembly elections in 2017. A Bureaucracy Today report.

- Sunil Gatade

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “handling” of his Lok Sabha Constituency in the last over two years gave the Grand Old Party of India an opportunity to attract massive crowds that turned out on the streets of Varanasi to see Sonia Gandhi.

The BJP may not have spoken a word about the Varanasi turnout but it is more than an eye-opener for the ruling party at the Centre. Many Union Ministers and BJP insiders are reportedly admitting, although privately, the fact that the roadshow in Modi’s constituency has made his party leadership sit and think.

An effect of the roadshow is that even loyalists of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi are admitting that Sonia is the most credible face the party has.

No doubt, it was a Prashant Kishor show which the camp of the Congress poll strategist dubbed a “trailor” to emphasise that a full “picture to abhi baaki hai”. The foremost success of the roadshow is that people of Uttar Pradesh have at least started talking about the Congress, which in itself is an achievement.

Another major impact is that it has given Sonia renewed confidence as a mass leader. After her party battering in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, it needed an elixir.