Pallab Bhattacharya
Two months after its searing defeat in parliamentary elections, the Congress remains mired in the top leadership mess in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s exit as the party chief. But the party grabbed the first available opportunity to hit the ground running once again in street agitation politics staging a sit-in protesting the killing of ten tribals over a land dispute at a village in Uttar Pradesh. The protest was helmed by none other party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi.
The fact that Priyanka herself chose to lead the protest, staged the sit-in and spent a night at a guest house in Chunar town, about 65km from the site of the clash over a plot of land which left the Gond tribals dead on July 17, and refused to call off her agitation without meeting the families of the deceased reaffirms the widely-held perception that the Congress cannot do without the Gandhi family. There are four reasons why Priyanka rushed to Chunar: (1) the issue related to tribals, a traditional support base of the Congress (2) Uttar Pradesh is electorally the most crucial state sending the highest number of Lok Sabha members (3) fresh assembly polls are due in Uttar Pradesh in 22 and (4) it is the home state of the Gandhis.
Had it not been anyone other than a Gandhi family member, the sit-in would not have had the kind of media attention it got. Such is the Indian media’s obsession with the Congress’ first family. The party not only stole the march over other opposition parties by visiting the state protesting the tribals killing going beyond condemnation statement but also the presence of Priyanka Gandhi reduced the other opposition leaders like Derek O’ Brien of Trinamool Congress, who tried to visit the clash site, to a mere footnote. All other Congress leaders played supporting to role to Priyanka’s protest including Rahul Gandhi who is in the United States and took to the Twitter.
Priyanka’s sit-in protest came at a time when an increasing number of voices are emanating from the Congress for her as the new Congress President in place of Rahul. Former member of the party’s highest decision-making forum the Congress Working Committee Anil Shastri, son of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, recently opined that there is no better person than Priyanka to head the Congress. Another party functionary Praveen Davar was not as forthright as Anil. Davar said while Priyanka will undoubtedly make a very good party chief, it may not happen now. According to Davar, even if the Congress opts for an interim President till a full-fledged chief is found, the party would not have any option in two years time other than turning to either Rahul or Priyanka as President.
It remains to be seen how Rahul Gandhi’s repeated insistence of Rahul that no member of the Gandhi family should be considered for the party chief’s post after his resignation plays out on the search for his successor. Discussions are on in the party about convening a meeting of the CWC to discuss the new Congress chief. The urgency of finding a new President cannot be lost on the Congress as it increasingly suffers defections to the BJP in several states post-national elections and faces the daunting task of preparing itself for fresh assembly poll battles in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana states.