Will Rahul Gandhi Fit The Cap!

After resisting it for 13 years, the heir apparent takes charge of the Congress. Can he revive the stranded party?

- Kaushik Deka

Will he, won’t he? After keeping the Congress as well as the country guessing for the past 13 years, Rahul Gandhi finally put that uncertainty to rest on December 4. He will now become the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to take charge of the 132-year-old Grand Old Party of India.

On paper, at least, the Nehru-Gandhi scion is well-placed to lead the party: at 47, he has interned under his mother, Sonia Gandhi, for 13 years, four years as No. 2 in the organisation. Sonia herself was a political novice when she became Congress president at 52; father Rajiv was younger at 41 when he was forced to take charge of the country and the Congress after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi in 1984.

However, Rahul inherits the Congress mantle at a time when the party is plumbing the depths of political fortunes. It has a miserable 44 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, its vote share having plummeted to a historic 19.5 per cent low in 2014. In the past three years, the Congress has faced defeat or failed to make any impact in 15 assembly elections, and in the process lost several of its strongholds such as Maharashtra, Haryana, Assam and Kerala. Currently, it is in power in just eight of India’s 29 states, retaining a mere 766 seats in the 4,120 assembly constituencies across the country. Congress-mukt Bharat has never seemed a more distinct possibility.