What makes Rahul succeed?

Update: 2018-12-12 15:33 GMT

The spectacular victory of Congress in three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan place the party in the driver's seat in the country opposition politics. After a humiliating defeat in the 2014 general election, it is for the first time that Congress has a reason to cheer about. During this period the mantle of Congress leadership shifted to a reluctant Rahul Gandhi from his mother Sonia Gandhi who after spending a considerable amount of time to party affairs decided to step aside and let son Rahul come and occupy the centre stage. After dabbling in Pappuhood for a while, Rahul has emerged as a successful leader who can steer the party to such wholesome and emphatic victory as witnessed in the latest round of Assembly elections in the country. The year began with Assembly elections in the North-eastern states and BJP along with its regional partners made a clean sweep, forming governments in the four states that went to polls. The winning run of BJP was somewhat tamed for the first time in the Karnataka Assembly elections when even after emerging as the single largest party in the state Assembly polls and Governor inviting the party to form the government, BJP failed to grab necessary support to remain in power. The anti-BJP sentiments that manifested during the Karnataka Assembly elections only grew stronger and Congress has been successful in exploiting those feelings in the three crucial BJP-ruled states that it won. Over the past years, there has been widespread speculation about Rahul Gandhi's sincerity as a political leader. He was also at the centre of widespread jokes highlighting how casually he takes things. Then, he picked up the Rafale deal controversy and persisted with his criticism with such consistency that even other opposition leaders who initially did not think critically began to express suspicion about the deal. But what is great about Rahul Gandhi is his interpretation of Congress' ideology. When reporters asked him how he runs the party during his mysterious foreign trips when he remains traceless for weeks together, Rahul Gandhi has reportedly said that Congress is an ideology-driven party and every congressman is the custodian of this ideology. The party does not need a face to lead it; it is led by a set of principles, he is believed to have said. What is important here is his conviction in the interpretations that he gives. And, the big victory that Congress has just tasted in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh is the result of his conviction in the invincibility of the Congress ideology. Rahul Gandhi was able to delineate the finer nuances of his party's ideologies and put it in perspective, and the rest was supposed to follow and it followed indeed. Rahul Gandhi's strategy to running the party was a lot more democratic and transparent than that of rival BJP. In contrast, top BJP leaders do not seem to have the same degree of conviction in the ideologies and programmes of the party that they profess to have faith in. None of the core issues that BJP has been raising for decades figures prominently on the government's to-do list. Article 370, Ram Temple and Uniform Civil Code are no longer an issue now when BJP is in power, but when the elections come near or the party loses an election, these issues once again become relevant for BJP leaders. It is this lack of conviction among BJP top leadership in the party's ideologies and programmes that has started to show its effects on the poll outcomes. With no taste for risk-taking, BJP is today what Congress was yesterday or BJP is the new Congress.

Besides his conviction in the ideology of the party, Rahul Gandhi has been able to become a people's man; he comes from an elite background but is not an elitist in the mould of Shashi Tharoor while BJP's top leaders come from humble backgrounds and lack the sophistication that Rahul Gandhi delivers. They behave arrogantly or at least the sense of persuasion is completely missing from their discourse. Why Rahul Gandhi remains a widely accepted leader within Congress is not so much because of his pedigree but his ability to represent both the poor and the elite – and that too, without being accused of favouritism. Congress has a long history and as a political party, for a long time, Congress meant India and India meant Congress. BJP's proclamations to make India free from Congress has also not gone down well with the masses. Rahul Gandhi says he learns from Prime Minister Narendra Modi what not to say. So, he would like to defeat BJP but would not want to make India BJP-mukt. Can one see how Rahul Gandhi is discreetly trying to occupy the Hindutava mind space?  

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