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Other the most sycophantic followers of Gandhi family, everyone in the country, including people within Congress party have said enough critically about the party. So, there is nothing new I can say critical of the Congress Party. It has been in the “we need to introspect” phase for over 7 years now and seems unlikely to change.
But India needs a strong opposition and it needs to move into actual introspect and reform mode as soon as possible, but it sure as hell doesn’t look like Rahul Gandhi has any leadership skills to achieve that. Not does it look like the congress party can find itself a new leader as long as the Gandhis are still around. (meaning even if it gets a new non-Gandhi President, the power will still reside with the Gandhis). What needs to happen for a non-Gandhi to actually take control over the party?
I believe Rahul Gandhi should just start his own new political party. Is it likely to happen? No. Not at all. But there are a lot of potential benefits for Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party and perhaps the whole country if he were to do so.
How Rahul Gandhi can benefit from the move
With his own party, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t have to retire or accept defeat. He can state his own ideology, make alliances that make sense to him and try to prove he has his own base of supporters. He may finally be able to shake the tag of a dynast somewhat. At least he’d be attempting to build something on his own and not just pick-up what his parents and grandmother had left him. (Varun Gandhi, who is also from the same lineage, doesn’t face the same backlash, because he has his own political career not connected to his father).
Rahul was born behind the finish line but keeps thinking he has won the race. But with his own party, he’d be forced to go back to the start line.
He can take his most loyal followers and perhaps create a regional force in UP (or Kerala). If he does have the leadership skills that his followers say he does, he’s able to develop a strong regional force then that in itself would be a great development for him politically. If he fails miserably, well then that’d still a better end to his political career than his current course and the nation can also be done with the family once and for all.
How the Congress Party can benefit.
With the Gandhi’s and their most loyal people truly gone, Congress party can finally have its internal civil war to find a new leader. One might say the more likely scenario is that the party would just disintegrate into more regional factions and disappear and my counter to that is well, that’s already where it is headed towards anyway.
The hypothesis is that with the Gandhis gone, more ambitious leaders within the congress may actually stay knowing they might have a shot at power one day. At least in this scenario with actual competition, there is a chance, however small, for the party to find a charismatic leader who can keep it together and be the pivot for the strong opposition the country badly needs. BJP’s attacks on the congress, which thus far has been mostly laser focused on the Gandhis, would also be blunted to an extent.
While Congress giving support to a regional party leader is probably still the most likely path to an opposition coalition capable of winning, it’ll still be a weak coalition because Congress will continue to decline and so will this coalition. If the Congress Party has any chance of reforming itself and start growing and winning again, the Gandhis would have to move away for good.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
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