Rahul proves his mettle

New Delhi: The astonishing performance of Congress in the states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh could be seen as a victory of Congress president Rahul Gandhi's leadership. The performance of the Congress in three key states is enough to believe that Rahul is no more a Pappu now as he can make his opponents to dance on the tunes of democracy.

It may be a mere coincidence that the results of the three key states came on the day when Rahul Gandhi was elected as president of the Grand Old party just a year back in 2017 on December 11. Soon after Rahul becoming Congress chief, the party's performance in Karnataka assembly election was not up to the marks, but the party managed to form the government in the southern state with the support of JD(S).

The results of three assembly elections, which were being ruled by the BJP, would strengthen Rahul's position within the party and he would emerge as a centre point of opposition unity.

Soon after taking over the charge of Congress president in 2017, Rahul consistently focused on farmer's distress, unemployment and attacked the incumbent Modi government over Rafale deal, financial frauds, etc. According to political observers, the issue of farmers and unemployment has found some resonance with the voters, especially in the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

It seems the announcement of loan waiver within 10 days of the government formation worked well for the party and it registered a comfortable victory in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Political experts have also opined that the assembly poll results would also give Rahul a foothold in the national politics. The outstanding performance of Congress in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan would make BSP and SP that had snubbed Congress and went alone in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to rethink about forging an alliance with the grand old party. In Chhattisgarh, BSP had allied with Ajit Jogi and tried to create a third front, which has been rejected by the voters of the state.

The decisions taken by Rahul to put his house (organisation) in order to focus more on farmers issue yielded results as he created several new departments right from farmers wing to unorganised labour wing to NRI wing. He divided the work among new leaders and created a system where daily to weekly reports are directly sent to him.

For ticket distribution, Rahul had set up a separate wing that conducted internal surveys and insisted on ticket distribution to winnable candidates. However, according to party insiders, the tickets were not distributed as per the findings of the internal survey.

The Gandhi scion also tried his best to not leave any stone unturned by relentlessly addressing numerous political rallies all the five states. Rahul devoted most of his time in the three Hindi heartland states as winning these three states had become the bone of contention for him as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The strategy of Rahul, according to experts, to attack PM Modi over corruption in Rafale deal, financial frauds, and farmers' distress worked in his favour and won the crucial state elections.

Praising the leadership of Rahul in his poetic style, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu said, "Bure din jaane wale hain aur Rahul Gandhi aane wale hain... kuch hi samay baad Lal Qile pe jhanda fehrane wale hain (Bad days will go away and Rahul Gandhi will unfurl the national flag at Red Fort)." Agreeing with Sidhu, experts have also opined that if Rahul continues to keep the momentum, the words of Sidhu would soon become a reality.