NEW DELHI: Make no mistake. The line of succession is decided. Coming from a top Congress party leader, the definitive ring to the utterance is a bit surprising. In the grand old party nothing is cut-and-dried unless the party president Sonia Gandhi puts her signature to the order.
Despite its crumbling fortunes and its legendary appetite for palace intrigues, the grand old party sticks to the letters, officialese just as any government department would do. The political party constitution, thus, has been dusted out and read many times in the past few weeks, the leader adds.
If there is a guessing game on, “it is only about the timing” of the formal transfer of power from the matriarch, Sonia Gandhi, to the chosen one, Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress is not looking beyond the Gandhis, not before 2019 elections. Much as it is criticised for being a dynasty stronghold and not a democratic set-up, it will not hold open elections where anyone who shows a spark or determination can aspire for the top job.
Why this talk of change now? As the longest serving Congress President, Sonia has put in 17 long years at the helm, “a change of guard will have to happen’’ well before the next parliamentary elections. “There’s no dispute over the successor, what is still open is the timing of when exactly she wants bow out, it has been left to her,’’ another CWC member, close to the family says.
If Sonia decides that it is going to be during the AICC session, the party will declare Rahul as the consensus candidate then and there. The session could be held any time between April and August. But, in case, she desires to give her son a little for time, it would be left for the plenary session or even later.
The Congress constitution does allow the party to take such a course of action. The Election Commission has no say over it. “We can write to the EC that we decided to postpone the elections for one more year,’’ a source in the know of organisational matters explained. He added “all options have been explained to her’’, which again means the timing of the transfer of power is being discussed at the top echelons of the party.
What is not clear though, is what role Sonia will play thereafter—whether she would prefer to assume an “emeritus’’ status (requiring an amendment of the party constitution) or just continue as UPA chairperson. Senior leaders, like A K Antony, Digvijaya Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, are of the view that creating a dichotomy would led to further confusion among the rank and file. The line of control should be clear.
There’s resistance from state-level leaders who do not want Rahul’s variety of “long term, philosophical politics’’ to be imposed on them. Being a status-quo-ist, Sonia managed to take every one along without ruffling too many feathers and hence remained an undisputed leader. Not so, Rahul.
A trade-off could be achieved by bringing Priyanka Gandhi into a formal role, dividing the parliamentary and electoral responsibilities between the two. Says a former minister who still holds a key parliamentary party post, “She is a good communicator, her Hindi is better than others (meaning Sonia and Rahul’s)’’ which “could make some difference in UP and Bihar.’’ While earlier, Priyanka vehemently refused to get sucked into any formalised position other than that of a manager of her mother’s and her brother’s constituencies “now she’s responding to the knocking on the door—getting ready for a bigger struggle.’’ So, it could a brother-sister duet. More Nehru-Gandhi, not less.The Congress constitution does allow the party to take such a course of action.