Every one surprised when suddenly Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi attempted to `pacify’ G23 leader, after almost ignoring their hard-hit letter questioning the legitimacy of the party top leadership itself, particularly turning the party into property of a `single family’.
Many felt that after disastrous results for the party in all five assembly elections, losing major fortress of the party Punjab in a humiliating manner and even Priyanka Gandhi’s `trump card’ failed to yield results in Uttara Pradesh.
If that was the true, immediately after poll results they may express some solidarity words towards G23, at least may respect their point of view at the CWC meeting, held on March 20. But they continue ignoring them and not shown any sense of `introspection’ or attitude of `accommodative spirit’ towards G23 leaders.
After only after two days of CWC meeting, G23 leaders were seen vexed with leadership’s `response’ to their anxieties towards `future’ of the party and held two-days consultation at Gulab Nazib Azad’s residence, suddenly Rahul Gandhi swing into action.
Then only, Rahul Gandhi met former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in a way seeking his `mediation’ to bring together G23 into fold. For the last one year, he is the only leader from G23 group, Rahul Gandhi met and discussed about party affairs, that too only very recently.
Later, Sonia Gandhi herself telephoned to Azad. This attempt at some sort of rapprochement is reportedly motivated by the belated realization of the party’s rapid decline and more because of apprehensions that an open confrontation or split would offer a pretext for the Election Commission to intervene.
Intervention of Election Commission would have disastrous effect with a probability of freezing the Congress symbol, accounts and properties. Gandhis seems to be advised by well-informed sources that legitimacy of leadership cannot be demonstrated merely by a show of hands, as is the Congress’s normal practice, the constitutional procedure would have to be strictly adhered to.
The de facto president, Rahul Gandhi, is reluctant to take formal charge as he does not want to shoulder blame for the Congress’s poor performance. On the other hand, the paranoid Gandhi family remains firm that they cannot hand over charge to anyone other than a very trusted loyalist, but one with some stature is hard to find.
Incidentally, when Rahul attended the CWC, he was taken aback to find that though the meeting was deliberately packed with many special invitees, the only voices defending him were Ashok Gehlot and Mallikarjun Kharge. While leaving, he remarked in an aside to his companion that the silence weighed heavy.
The problem with Rahul to adjust with G23 leaders is that he had dismissed them as armchair leaders with no grassroots support. However, he was forced to cultivate rapport with Hooda, after realizing that the party will be in trouble in Haryana, without him. Hooda wields sizeable influence in his bastion of Sonipat-Rohtak and is the only prominent Congress Jat leader in the state.
