Criticism of Rahul within party, anger and disappointment is palpable

Congress men upset over his refusal to take charge of a ministry when in power, and hestitating to act as an opposition leader

This was the last straw. If Rahul Gandhi, as Congress Vice President wanted to redeem himself in the eyes of his party leaders after leading the Congress to one of its worst ever electoral defeats in the Lok Sabha elections, he should have taken charge as leader of the party in the Lok Sabha. While officially all partymen are “happy” with the choice of senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the anger and disappointment resonating within party circles is deafening.  

Despite the questions being raised about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and his “failure” having seen the Congress reduced to double digits (44 MPs), most Congressmen, especially the few who had managed to win their seats, had reconciled themselves to his leadership. However they had openly demanded that Rahul Gandhi “lead from the front and take over the leader role both inside and outside the house.”   

However, in the wake of Gandhi’s “habitual” shirking of responsibility, beginning with not taking over charge of a ministry when UPA was in government to now not taking over the role of the leader who could be seen to oppose, attack and hold the government accountable on the floor of the house, has angered party leaders.    

A leader who had met Gandhi after Kharge was appointed, admitted that Gandhi “wasn’t too bothered by the negative image that was going out.” “I am being blamed for everything, so another charge (of being perceived as having ducked responsibility) does not matter,” Gandhi is believed to have said.    

At a loss for words to explain Gandhi’s attitude, one of the seniormost leaders of the party said with a wry smile, “Ofcourse he Rahul, has lot more important things to do than lead the party in Parliament.”   

Young gun Ashok Tanwar, Haryana Congress PCC chief, one of the “young guns” in the party limited himself to saying, “Yes, we would have definitely liked to see Rahul Gandhi lead us in the house, but he has chosen to let someone else lead us and that is okay.”   

Party spokesperson Shashi Tharoor, tried his best to defend the party Vice President. “Rahul Gandhi has not taken on a leadership role in the Lok Sabha because he would want to focus on reinventing the party and organisation. He says it will be enough to occupy his time.” Tharoor says Gandhi will be engaged in structural overhauling of the party and not mere re-jigging of party posts.

It is only the odd voice of Youth Congress President Rajeev Satav who believes that the choice of Kharge signifies that “senior leaders are respected in the party.”He adds, “For Rahul Gandhi posts don’t matter. Whether he is officially the leader in Parliament or not, he is the undisputed leader and those who question his leadership do not have any touch with the grass roots.”   

Gandhi, it appears, is sticking to his usual operating methods and not resorting to any “course correction” as one would have expected. Gandhi’s visit to Badaun in the wake of the twin rapes and murder recently, was on the same lines as his earlier visit to Bhatta Parsaul during the agitation over land acquisition. Rahul Gandhi has faced the brunt of attack repeatedly for fly by night visits, touching on issues and not doing follow ups. Attempting to refute this charge, Tharoor said, "Not every follow up action is a televised photo op."

Whether the Speaker would stick to convention and give the Congress the Leader of Opposition role is yet to be decided but what will also be a challenge for the party in the Lok Sabha now will be the limited time it will be allocated to speak in the house. Since it is down in terms of numbers, it is unlikely to get any substantial minutes.

Should Rahul Gandhi continue to be the back bencher like he was in parliament on the opening day of the 16th Lok Sabha today, it will be questionable whether he could at all revive the Congress prospects in the next five years.