The Lucknow narrative is drastically different but Rahul had many opportunities to turn around the grand old Congress. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked him to join his Council of Ministers thrice and thrice Rahul turned down the sane advice from a good doctor.
At the Press Club of India, Rahul tore a copy of a Government ordinance in full public view. In the subsequent Assembly and parliamentary polls, Rahul went on accommodating tainted and corrupt elements making a mockery of his Press Club stand on convicted lawmakers. The compromise proved costly in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll. At the organisational level, his attempts to democratise the Youth Congress and NSUI failed miserably.
The 2012 Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh had witnessed a race of sorts between Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul under the seasoned tutelage of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sonia Gandhi respectively. The Young Gandhi had drawn impressive crowds throughout his campaign but in the final outcome Akhilesh, riding a bicycle, was ahead by almost 200 seats.
Throughout the 2012 campaign, Rahul kept terming Uttar Pradesh his karma-bhoomi and repeatedly stressed his resolve to lead the State from the front. Yet he avoided projecting himself as a chief ministerial candidate despite the opportunity it offered, in case of a victory, for hands-on experience of governing a sixth of India’s population. In State elections, it takes someone charismatic like Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik or Mamata Banjerjee to trigger a landslide victory.
Rahul had actually started off well in Uttar Pradesh, telling a large rally at Phulpur on 14 November 2011, "When I see such injustices in Uttar Pradesh, I wonder why I don’t come and live in Lucknow and take up your battle." But he did not follow up on his words.
Sources close to the Amethi MP claim that Rahul had seriously considered becoming the candidate for Chief Minister but the AICC shot down the idea. The question currently being asked in party circles is that how something as important as this was not discussed at the Congress Working Committee. Apparently, Rahul’s aides cited two reasons why he should not take up any position in Uttar Pradesh. One, it is not an easy State to govern. Two, Rahul cannot restrict himself to a particular State or region.
Digvijaya Singh, who was party general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, had later admitted that there was a proposal to project Rahul as the Congress's chief ministerial candidate but a section of the party vetoed it on the grounds that a Gandhi is destined to become Prime Minister. This was a factor responsible for Rahul rejecting Singh’s repeated offers to join a Ministry of his choice ranging from rural development to defence to a junior post in either the Prime Minister’s Office or External Affairs Ministry.
Like his recently concluded Kisan Yatra, Rahul in 2012 had travelled wide and deep into remote hamlets and visited Dalit households. He had pitched himself as the agent of change while party strategists like Digvijaya Singh continued to play the old game of community and caste-stacking.
Then came Jaipur where in January 2013 Rahul chose to be vice president of the Congress when Sonia wanted him to take over the party leadership. The likes of Janardhan Dwivedi worked out office of party vice president that finds no mention in the Congress constitution and proved disastrous each time such a post was created. Before Rahul, Arjun Singh under Rajiv Gandhi and Jitendra Prasada under Sitaram Kesri had served in this post and both vanished without a trace.
In his acceptance speech, Rahul said only two types of leaders would thrive and survive: those capable of winning elections, and cerebral types with a technological-professional background. But he failed to translate his Jaipur words into action. A vast number of “rootless wonders” who had been banking on loyalty and sycophancy to grab posts, bagged more power and positions.
Unlike Akhilesh of Samajwadi Party, Rahul chose not to see party leaders in his organisation who wanted him to fail in his efforts to cleanse the party. They did not want him to act as a “judge for all” as he promised in Jaipur but as an advocate of identity politics, promoting “talent” only with the tags of caste, sub-caste and religion attached.
A great opportunity was lost. Now even a diehard Congress supporter feels that without Priyanka Gandhi’s formal entry into politics, the Congress story under the Nehru-Gandhi family is doomed.
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