Sonia Gandhi: With the Congress still at her feet
Apart from being the longest-serving president (now former) the Congress has ever had, Sonia Gandhi juggled many roles, one of which is as a reassuring presence for generations of the party faithful. She once explained to a senior Bihar Congress leader the difference between a ‘Maithili Brahmin’ and a ‘Chitpawan Brahmin’ and the nuances of their political/social/historical presence, much to his jaw-dropping amazement. Then, there are those did not find favours with her dispensation, got sidelined and left the party. Some partymen feel the Congress got weak in the states because she ran the party through the Rajya Sabha. This story has not ended. Rahul knows what depletion in the fleet can do in states, from the exit of the likes of Himanta Biswa Sarma. With 48 MPs and a few states in his kitty, the Rahul Congress has to embark on an expansion plan on the party front and through coalitions.
“The transition therefore has to be very smooth, the family is mindful of that. Soniaji commands a lot of loyalty in the party and outside. Rahul’s success will depend on how far she can transfer that on to him and whether he can carry everyone along. She is giving him a helping hand,” says a former Congress chief minister.
Sonia Gandhi’s retirement plan, if it was ever there, has been shelved for now to create a kind of comfort level with allies and partymen before 2019. Her continuance as the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson is a signal to senior Congress leaders and allies that she is still around. The Congress cannot have any more infighting. The CWC election was also shelved partly because it could have sharpened existing faultines. On the alliance front, Sonia would be the figurehead, providing goodwill, acumen and her ability to humbly reach out to others. Ram Vilas Paswan, seen to be a weathercock of any election, would prefer to talk to Sonia than Rahul. The latter’s accessibility has always been in question. As for Mamata Banerjee or Sitaram Yechury, both Sonia and Rahul have an equation with them.
Sharad Pawar left the Congress because of Sonia Gandhi, and also joined the UPA coalition because of her. Rahul recently spent an hour with him and his daughter Supriya Sule. Akhilesh Yadav, Omar Abdullah, and even M K Stalin, are considered ‘friends of Rahul’. Sonia, in her coalition-making and Opposition dinner diplomacy, will work within these parametres.
On state-specific alliances, whether the Congress would sacrifice the notional tag of the ‘main opposition’, say in Odisha for an alliance with the BJD, will be decided not by Sonia but by Rahul, in consultation with her and other seniors. It’s the same with the Maharashtra and Bengal alliances. Sonia may have made a hypothetical conjecture in public that, in future, the Congress may have a non-Gandhi as a party chief, but as of now, she’s playing the ‘traditional’ Indian mother, facilitating her son’s rise. Nonetheless, as the plenary session proved, Sonia remains the party’s most powerful political voice, devoutly articulating the Congress position. Health permitting, she would continue to be that... and also be the main mentor for the Rahul Congress.