The Hand Needs Holding

The Gujarat defeat was honourable, but Rahul’s Congress needs to urgently stem the organisational rot to stand a fighting chance against the Modi-shah election machine in 2019

- Kaushik Deka

On December 16, when Rahul Gandhi formally took charge as president of the Congress, his mother Sonia Gandhi had some encouraging words to prepare him for two more potential defeats in the next 48 hours—after 17 in the past three years. Sonia reminded Rahul that when she became president of the party in March 1998, it was in power in just five states. “Gradually, we formed governments in nearly two dozen states,” she said. Rahul is starting with exactly the same number of states under the party’s belt, though its Lok Sabha tally is more than a hundred less than in Sonia’s time. But his challenges are far greater than his mother’s. The unprecedented popularity and campaign chutzpah of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the micro-management capabilities of Amit Shah have given the BJP not only a brute majority of 282 seats in the Lok Sabha but also power in 19 out of 29 states (it is a coalition partner in six of them).

The defeat in Gujarat underlines the Himalayan task facing Rahul as the Congress labours to reclaim its political space. In spite of his most spirited campaign till date, Rahul could not bring the party to power in Gujarat, though he succeeded in increasing its tally by 16 seats and restricting the BJP to double digits. But it is this creditable failure that offers Rahul the rationale and opportunity to implement a reform blueprint that will allow the party under him to mount a challenge to Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

ORGANISATIONAL VACUUM