The chink in Congress' armour

The election process of a new Congress president has become murkier despite a claim by the party that it will be free, fair and transparent. Although the party is maintaining that anyone can contest for the top post, several state units have so far passed unanimous resolutions backing the party vice president Rahul Gandhi to lead the grand old party. Rahul Gandhi, ever since he quit as Congress president in 2019, has been insisting that someone outside the Nehru-Gandhi family should lead the party. The election process began on Thursday with the party issuing the notification. If there is a need for an election, then voting will take place on October 17 and results will be declared on October 19. Congress veteran and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot indicated that he might throw the hat in the ring after the party's Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram and senior leader Shashi Tharoor had met interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi and apprised her of his plans to contest. Gehlot, who is seen as the candidate backed by Nehru-Gandhi loyalists, faces the dilemma that if gets elected he will have to step down as the Chief Minister and pave the way for his bête noire Sachin Pilot to succeed him. Gehlot indicated an unwillingness to quit as the Chief Minister while expressing his intention to jump into the fray for the election of Congress president by saying that he is ready to take up any responsibility given to him by the party. He initially insisted that there was no bar on keeping both the post of Chief Minister and Congress President. However, Rahul Gandhi, who is currently leading the second leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, has sent out a clear message that the "one person, one post" rule adopted at the Congress Chintan Shivir at Udaipur would also apply to Gehlot if gets elected as the new Congress president. The election, therefore, brings an opportunity for the party to convince Gehlot to let Pilot become the Chief Minister so that the power-struggle in Rajasthan comes to an end well ahead of Assembly polls in the state which is due in December 2023. Gehlot maintaining that he would try to convince Rahul Gandhi one last time to take up the reins of the Congress party as the new president is also an expression of loyalty for the Gandhi family and would be seen as a face of the Gandhi family loyalists in the party for the presidential election if he finally decides to file his nomination. Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have told both Tharoor and Gehlot that she or anyone from the Gandhi family would not endorse any candidature. These developments have shaped the popular perception that the internal election in the Congress party for a full-fledged president is oscillating around the Nehru-Gandhi family even after Rahul Gandhi declined to shoulder the responsibility. Rahul Gandhi relinquished the position following the party's debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls saying he was responsible for the defeat, but the Congress party's failure to elect a new full-fledged president to lead the party left the party organization weaker. It also gave a handle to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to intensify the campaign against the Congress party aggressively pushing the "dynasty rule narrative." The Nehru-Gandhi family loyalists are believed to have articulated the strategy of keeping the Gandh out of the contest to protect their hold within the party, but at the same time deny the BJP the opportunity of using this narrative of targeting the opposition party by electing a non-Gandhi for the party's top post. The unanimous resolutions of state units backing Rahul Gandhi are also an indication that they want to ensure the top post is won only by a Nehru-Gandhi-family loyalist in the event there is an election. For Tharoor, as one of the signatories of Congress leaders, who wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 pressing for sweeping reforms within the party for its revival, the contest is going to be tough. The contest between him and Gehlot, that is on cards, if things hold as it is developing now, will be a testing ground for finding out if the grand old party is ready to create more space for leaders outside the Nehru-Gandhi family or if loyalty for the family continues to be the only cementing force for party workers and leaders. Inner party rivalry is a challenge faced by every political party in India and the ruling BJP is no exception. Growing dissension, rebellion and desertion of many Congress veterans point toward the Nehru-Gandhi family's hold within the Congress party weakening but loyalists are in no mood to concede this hard reality. The overt political manoeuvring to get a Gandhi-family loyalist elected as the new president has exposed the chink in the Congress armour and cast a shadow over the party presidential election.