The real issue is the next chairman of the UPA.
NEW DELHI: Will Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi retire from politics next year? There are indications that Sonia Gandhi, 74, wants to quit as head of the party and leader of the UPA. That she is indisposed is one of the reasons for this.
But the big question is who will replace her. There is no problem as far as the post of Congress’ president is concerned. Rahul Gandhi has to take a call on this. Either he will be replacing his mother or he will get some other leader appointed as party’s chief and will continue to work as he is doing now.
The real issue is the next chairman of the UPA. What is believed is that none of the parties in the UPA has any leader who could match the stature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi so as to be able to challenge him.
The name of NCP leader Sharad Pawar did figure in the discussions but he has a regional tag by virtue of being established as a Maratha leader. Apart from his old age as he is 80 now, Pawar does not have any hold in Hindi belts. Another UPA constituent RJD’s leader Lalu Yadav is in jail. Similarly, Sharad Yadav is not keeping well. Congress is in direct fight with Mamata Banerjee in Bengal. The problem with the DMK leader M.K. Stalin is that he is not popular beyond his state Tamil Nadu. JMM leader Shibu Soren is not even under consideration. Shiv Sena might be ambitious in terms of heading the UPA. But the Congress would be averse to the idea of Uddhav Thackeray being given such a chance.
According to sources, the Congress wants Sonia Gandhi to continue as UPA chairperson in future also. However, another option is that some other senior leader of the Congress may be given this responsibility. But the problem in this decision will be that most of the seniors of the Congress are not getting along well with the high command ever since they wrote to Sonia Gandhi. The leaders who are close to the Gandhi family are Mallikarjuna Kharge, Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot, Amarender Singh and Digvijaya Singh. Sonia Gandhi may give UPA’s charge to any one of them. But it will be decided after the appointment of the next party president.