Amidst hints that the Congress party may have to downsize its hopes of a revival in Uttar Pradesh, vice president Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled public meeting in Amethi on January 10 was cancelled, ostensibly due to “water-logging” at the venue. More will be known about the truth of this assertion if Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas holds his proposed rally at the same Ramlila Ground on January 12. The AAP has declared Vishwas as its candidate for the forthcoming general election from Amethi.
Rahul Gandhi, who recently got a ringing endorsement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as having “outstanding credentials” to be nominated as the Congress’s numero uno for the 2014 parliamentary elections, has been struggling to get his campaign off the ground. After a string of flops as election micro manager in the elections in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi, a plan to showcase the Amethi MP as a youth icon at a session at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on January 7 also had to be cancelled amidst fears of a controversy as Gandhi is not a constitutional functionary and could not legitimately address an official function of the Government of India. The function is inaugurated by the Prime Minister and the various sessions are addressed by senior Ministers, Chief Ministers, and other constitutional authorities.
Thus, the soft launch of Rahul Gandhi at this distinguished gathering had to be scrapped hastily – after invitations were distributed – because of the furore that followed the Prime Minister’s praising him at his official press conference while denigrating the Gujarat Chief Minister. Deciding against risking fresh controversy, the party printed and distributed a new programme; Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vyalar Ravi informed the media that the Amethi MP might join the three-day event to meet some of the foreign delegates. So far, there is no news that he has done so.
The soft launch was instead put off to January 10, when Rahul Gandhi was slated to bestow developmental largesse on his constituency in the form of nine branches of the State Bank of India and an FM radio station, besides laying the foundation stone of a Rail Neer unit (water manufacturing plant) and inaugurating a Railway shopping complex. On January 11, he was scheduled to address party workers in Gauriganj and chalk out a strategy for the 2014 polls; but that too, is likely to be rescheduled.
Priyanka Vadra, who micro manages the Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies and elections on behalf of her brother and mother, was also slated to visit Gauriganj on January 11. Insiders say that after the terrible debacle of the Congress in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the leadership has been warned that the State needs serious attention. Priyanka Vadra has been specifically told not to bring her children for electioneering again, as the move failed to bring any political cachet for the party and invited ridicule across the spectrum.
That Congress is in doldrums is a no-brainer. As recently as October 2013, the party was forced to cancel two scheduled rallies by Rahul Gandhi (Hamirpur in Bundelkhand and Salempur in eastern UP) due to fears of thin attendance, though the excuse given was “karva chauth”.
Since then, Narendra Modi has been stomping across the country blowing the bugle of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and helping it win handsomely in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, retain Chhattisgarh, and come close to the finishing line in Delhi. Amidst reports that Congress president Sonia Gandhi is anxious (possibly due to reasons of health, and/or to avert a possible challenge from a disgruntled satrap) to urgently hand over control of the party to Rahul Gandhi, it has become imperative to give the latter a power-packed launch. The January 10 public launch, however, has crashed.
Plans for the meeting were reportedly finalised on January 7 at a brainstorming meeting at the 12 Tughlak Lane residence of Rahul Gandhi, which was joined briefly by his sister Priyanka Vadra. Important leaders who attended included Jairam Ramesh, Ahmad Patel, Ajay Maken, Madhusudan Mistry, Gopal Mohan and Janardhan Dwivedi. Party sources hint at a major organizational revamp as fallout of the recent rout in four important states in northern India. There were specific discussions about the status of welfare schemes in Amethi and Rae Bareli as Congress performed badly in both constituencies, as also Sultanpur, during the Assembly elections.
It now seems evident that the launching of Rahul Gandhi will follow the Congress party’s one-day session in Delhi on January 17, where he is expected to be officially named as the prime ministerial candidate. Observers point that the Amethi rally may have been postponed on the advice of a PR agency reputedly hired to help give Rahul Gandhi an image makeover.
Niticentral.com, 10 January2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/01/10/congresss-raga-dreams-waterlogged-177685.html