Leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi aren’t yet at peace with the leadership; Patel’s skill of finding a middle path will be missed.
New Delhi: With the passing of Congress’ “backroom crisis-manager” Ahmed Patel, the Gandhi family is going to suffer the most. The party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi will find it quite difficult to handle the crisis that the Congress is facing at present, with her “troubleshooter” not around.
Patel used to work as a bridge between warring old and young guards of the party. Sonia Gandhi used to rely on Patel for this reason too. There is no denying that the Congress is in tatters today, with the Gandhi family facing a lot of trouble due to being under a sharp attack from its own party leaders. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be finding it difficult to take any effective decision in the absence of Patel.
It will have its bearing on the party president’s election. What was appearing till recently was that Rahul Gandhi would take over the party’s charge, but now nothing could be said definitely in the changed circumstances. However, the Central Election Authority of the Congress headed by Madhusudan Mistri is preparing for party president election next year. He will be submitting the voters’ list to Sonia Gandhi early next year and take a call on a possible date. Efforts are underway that after Covid-19 pandemic subsides a plenary should be convened in March next year to appoint Rahul Gandhi as president. State units will be given instructions in this regard in December, asking them to send proposals of Rahul Gandhi’s name so that delegates of PCCs could sign that proposal. Thereafter, the strategy is being put in place to elect 12 members of CWC. But the question is whether Rahul Gandhi will be appointed president of the Congress without any challenge.
The core Congress team still has senior leaders such as Ambika Soni and AK Antony, apart from Rahul’s advisors Randeep Singh Surjewala and K.C. Venugopal. This might be adding to challenges to the Gandhis in the absence of Patel.
The functioning of the core team has been questioned on several occasions in the past. The strategy it framed for different agitational activities for the party came a cropper. The committee could not be effective as far as Bihar polls are concerned. Such was its planning that even the CWC meet could not be called till date to pass any condolence resolution on passing of former president Pranab Mukherjee who had also been a CWC member for a long time.
Meanwhile, the 23 leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi are not yet at peace with the leadership. Leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and P. Chidambaram continue to raise questions over the leadership. There is no leader in the team of Rahul Gandhi who could find a middle path like Ahmed Patel. That the relations between Team Rahul and Patel were not cordial is a different matter. The matters used to be set right after the intervention by Sonia Gandhi. Patel did not want to be reappointed as treasurer, but he accepted the post again after pressure from the Gandhi family.
At one point of time, Sonia Gandhi had a trustworthy leader in Janardan Dwivedi apart from Ahmed Patel who used to handle the crisis in the party. But Dwivedi was the first victim of Team Rahul. He was sidelined in the party. After Dwivedi, Patel was the only leader left in the party who was close to the Gandhi family. Ahmed Patel’s say in any decisions was limited after 2014. But he was then still trying to avert clashes in the party. After Patel’s passing, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot is considered to be the closest to the Gandhi family. He is the only leader on whom Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra really rely. But the high command would like him to remain in Rajasthan as he is competent enough to run the government there. Therefore, what is needed is that Rahul Gandhi should change his working style to deal with the existing challenges on his own.