Congress Polls: It's Doors Open for All & Shashi Tharoor is the Latest to Walk In. But Rahul Gandhi Has All-Access Pass

“Whoever becomes Congress president will be like a peon, carrying the files of the Gandhis.” This is not just Ghulam Nabi Azad’s parting shot at the Congress’s first family but the public perception of the entire election exercise the party is finally holding after months of dragging its feet. Mindful of comparisons to the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation – dubbed remote control ki sarkar – by the BJP, the current leadership wants as many party president candidates as possible to convey a sense of democracy in the process.

That list of probables has now expanded to include Shashi Tharoor besides Ashok Gehlot and Mallikarjun Kharge. In an article for Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, Tharoor called for a “free and fair” election.

“Allowing members of the party drawn from the AICC and PCC delegates to determine who will lead the party from these key positions, would have helped legitimise the incoming set of leaders and give them a credible mandate to lead the party,” said Tharoor, who was among the group of 23 leaders who wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking organisational reforms.

“Still, electing a fresh president is a start towards the revitalisation the Congress badly needs,” the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

Taking on the Gandhi family, Tharoor wrote: “Many Congress supporters have been dismayed by Rahul Gandhi’s refusal to contest and his statement that no member from the Gandhi family should replace him. It is really for the Gandhi family to decide where they collectively stand on the issue, but in a democracy, no party should put itself in the position of believing that only one family can lead it.”

As the article fuelled speculation that Tharoor was making throwing his hat in the ring, the former Union minister followed it up with a cryptic tweet quoting Swami Vivekananda.

Tharoor preferred to keep the suspense up when asked if he would contest the elections for Congress president. “I have no comment to make. I accept what I have written in my article which is that an election would be a good thing for Congress party,” he told reporters.

Cons of a Non-Gandhi President

When Sonia Gandhi picked Manmohan Singh to be the Prime Minister in 2004, she made it clear that he had her complete backing. In fact, she had also disapproved of Rahul Gandhi’s action in publicly tearing up an ordinance when Singh was abroad in 2013. The rash move is widely believed to have contributed to the party’s loss in general elections the following year. Insiders say it was from that point on that the UPA began hollowing out with ministers reluctant to accept Manmohan Singh as their boss.

The act amplified perceptions that 10 Janpath was the “real residence” of India’s PM and that Sonia Gandhi, not Manmohan Singh, had been calling the shots all along. In fact, the National Advisory Council set up to advise the government was seen as the “real government”.

The party fears that a non-Gandhi president would end up giving off the same impression – that Gandhis are really the one in-charge no matter the party president.

Pros of a non-Gandhi President

A non-Gandhi president, which most likely will be the case, won’t be entirely bad for the Congress. If the party plays its cards right, it can use the opportunity to cut through the BJP’s dynasty charge while showing that unlike the saffron party, the Congress held ‘real’ elections.

It also gives the Gandhi camp a golden opportunity to silence the G23 once and for all. The bloc is as it is thinning out with the departures of Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad. Electing a non-Gandhi would fulfil the grouping’s biggest demand of “full-time president”. And if no one from the G23 comes forward to contest, the bloc would stand exposed as all talk.

If Past is Prologue…

Sitaram Kesri was the last non-Gandhi to head the Congress. He took up the job in September 1996 and continued on till March 1998 when he was booted out by Gandhi loyalists who felt he was building his own coterie in the party. Sonia Gandhi was practically forced to step up to the top job. Even then, senior leader Jitendra Prasada contested against her but lost as there was a trust deficit between him and the party leaders. Insiders say his son Jitin Prasada carried the same baggage and eventually quit the grand old party for the BJP in June 2021.

The Bottomline

It’s a vicious cycle the party is stuck in. If a Gandhi becomes Congress president, it will reinforce the family-rule image, giving ammunition to the BJP and the G23. If a non-Gandhi becomes president, their authority will be undermined by the mere presence of the Gandhis.

But Gandhi loyalists haven’t lost hope yet. Strongly believing that handing over the reins to a non-Gandhi at this point would lead to chaos, they are hopeful that Rahul Gandhi will relent and agree to contest. The Wayanad MP will be busy in the Bharat Jodo yatra but sources say he doesn’t need to be physically present to file nomination, the last day for which is September 29, and that his written consent is enough.

Rahul Gandhi had embarked on a discovery of India tour before entering public life in 2008. Will the Bharat Jodo yatra be another bookmark in his political journey?

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