Cong. President - Old Guard Returns

Sonia Gandhi is expected to pacify the old guard and hold the party together. Rahul could emerge a parallel power centre

- Soni Mishra

At the Congress Working Committee meeting on August 10, when senior leader P. Chidambaram proposed that Sonia Gandhi should take over the reins of the party, there was a sense of deja vu. The party was undoing the generational change that had taken place around 18 months earlier when Sonia had passed the baton to Rahul.

Though several leaders seconded Chidambaram’s proposal, Sonia initially said no. The situation was similar to 1998 when Congress leaders had requested a reluctant Sonia to become party president. And just as in 1998, leaders said the party, beset with desertions, could even split if she did not take charge. Finally, Sonia agreed.

The names of problems such as Mukul Wasnik or Mallikarjun Kharge, which had been doing the rounds, were not even taken up for discussion. This was despite Rahul Gandhi having declared while stepping down, that his successor had to be a non-Gandhi.

It was also awkward for Sonia, who had to replace her son. But she had to do it because the divisions between the old guard and the new generation had reached a breaking point.

Since the day Rahul stepped down, on May 25, there had been a battle of wits between him and the seniors. “Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party,” Rahul wrote in his farewell letter, clearly indicating the purpose of his resignation. “It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress president. Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019.”

Said a leader in the Rahul camp: “I believe that we ceased to be office-bearers or Congress Working Committee members after my Congress president resigned. After all, he had appointed us.”