Does Surjewala's tirade suggest Rahul Gandhi's comeback as Congress chief?

Sources say Priyanka could debut in Rajya Sabha, even as party remains divided on whether or not to have a Gandhi family member as its president

The Congress is readying for another round of convulsion. Party leader Rahul Gandhi is set to return as its chief in April, according to internal sources. It is also possible that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will debut in the Rajya Sabha.

On Thursday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was uncharacteristically harsh on party leaders Sandeep Diskhit and Shashi Tharoor for suggesting someone other than members of the Congress first family should lead the party at the current juncture.

Congress sources, who are considered close to Rahul Gandhi, termed Dikshit’s comments to The Indian Express that Rahul Gandhi is not keen to return as “baseless speculation”.

These sources said leaders who do not want Rahul Gandhi back as party chief should either start thinking about their respective political future in the Congress, or fall in line.

With Sonia Gandhi indicating that she does not want to continue as interim party president, the sources said the only candidate in the fray to succeed her was Rahul Gandhi.

A party plenary is likely in April, once the Budget session of Parliament ends on April 3, where Rahul Gandhi could return as the party chief. He will also shape his team, a contentious issue between him and the party veterans, once nominations for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections, also to be held in April, are out of the way.

At the party’s afternoon press conference, ostensibly held to question the Centre announcing changes in the PM’s crop insurance scheme, Surjewala questioned Dikshit’s loyalty to the party’s cause in Delhi after his mother Sheila Dikshit passed away.

Surjewala, who heads the party’s communication department and is one of the younger leaders Rahul Gandhi trusts, asked Dikshit to introspect how Congress leaders in Delhi, him included, have fared in the elections than spend his time on WhatsApp and Twitter.

“If only Sandeep ji puts similar effort in his Lok Sabha constituency, where he had worked tirelessly during Sheila Dikshit ji’s tenure (as the chief minister of Delhi), than on WhatsApp, Twitter...the Congress could win there,” Surjewala said.

“I would request all my colleagues to invest their time in their respective constituencies instead of giving the benefit of their views to the entire country,” Surjewala said sarcastically.

In his comments, Dikshit had accused senior Congress leaders of failing to find a new president after all these months because they are "scared who will bell the cat".

Reacting to Dikshit’s remarks, Tharoor tweeted, "What Sandeep Dikshit said openly is what dozens of party leaders from across the country are saying privately, including many with responsible positions in the party. I renew my appeal to CWC (Congress Working Committee) to hold leadership elections to energise workers and inspire voters."

"Some have asked who should vote and for what. I was referring to my earlier call eight months ago for elections among the 10,000 party workers who constitute the 'AICC plus PCC delegates' list. These should be for the elected seats in the CWC as well as for the party presidency," Tharoor tweeted.

When asked, Surjewala suggested that Tharoor probably has a poor grasp of the party’s decision making processes. He said Tharoor should remember that the CWC elected Rahul Gandhi as the party chief. “My request to anyone with any misconception on this count is to please read and benefit from the CWC resolution (passed at the time) before opening their mouths,” Surjewala said.

Rahul Gandhi took over as the Congress president in December 2017. His leadership was praised with the party performing well in the Gujarat Assembly polls, managing to form a coalition government in Karnataka in May 2018 and then winning Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

However, Rahul Gandhi quit as the party chief in the wake of the Congress’s decimation in the Lok Sabha polls. In his resignation letter, he had also suggested that it was time for someone other than the Gandhis to helm the party. He had, however, also appealed to the veterans to not cling to their respective perches within the party. Later, Sonia Gandhi had taken over as the party’s interim chief.

Sources said some of Rahul Gandhi’s trusted younger leaders, including KC Venugopal, were likely to be sent to the Rajya Sabha. It is also possible that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra debuts in the Rajya Sabha, primarily to reach out to leaders of other opposition political parties. Currently, senior leaders like Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma keep in touch with leaders of other opposition parties.

In his comments, Dikshit had said: "The current position is that madam (Sonia) Gandhi is an interim president, Mr (Rahul) Gandhi doesn’t want to be president. So let us respect his position and carry on. If the Congress party at some point feels that Mr. Gandhi has to come back or wants to come back, opportunities will always be there. It has happened across other states also."