With Congress President Rahul Gandhi adamant that he will not withdraw his resignation, he remains, in parallel, furious with the old guard – Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and P. Chidambaram (Gehlot’s son Vaibhav lost while Kamal Nath’s son Nakul and Chidambaram’s son Karti won) – who were busy pushing their children in the recently-concluded hustings and “not working for the party per se”.
However, better counsel is now prevailing where he hasaccepted that he will lead the Congress party in the LokSabha where itsstrength, from a paltry 44, has gone up to 52, an increase of a mere eight MPs.Sonia Gandhi will remain UPA Chairperson and the family/dynasty will distanceitself from day-to-day affairs of the party.
An interim Working President with two or more working VicePresidents in a loosely-formed presidium will run the party operations and planfor elections and campaigns. K.C. Venugopal may emerge as interim Presidentwhile Prithviraj Chauhan could be one of the Vice Presidents.
Given that the Congress has 23 MPs from the south, itappears that a south Indian will helm the party for the time being. Oralternatively, cut the umbilical cord with the past and appointJyotiradityaScindia as the Working President and have the youth brigade aroundhim to turn the party’s fortunes around.
The Congress won the maximum number of 15 seats in Kerala,followed by eight each in Punjab and Tamil Nadu each. In many states and UnionTerritories, it could not even open its account. Among the party leaders wholost were four members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highestdecision-making body of the party.
But the Young Turks are determined to dislodge the old guard.Sachin Pilot and Scindia are in the forefront to back Rahul Gandhi in his”clean-up” attempt. Sources said that in his outburst at the CWCmeeting after the LokSabha defeat, Gandhi had selectively targeted the oldguard. The Young Turks, all of whom had tasted defeat, were spared.
In fact, Pilot and Scindia, being seen as the faces that mayreplace Gandhi, did not perform up to expectations. The Congress lost all theseats in Rajasthan for the second time in row, while in Madhya Pradesh, Scindialost his own election.