From Our Bureo
NEW DELHI: The dismal performance of the Congress in the elections has led to an attack not only from the G-23 rebel leaders but also from the ordinary workers and state leaders on former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.
They blame Rahul leaving the party rudderless after defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and surreptitiously running the party from behind as he alone meets all coming to Delhi to air their grievances to the Congress high command since Congress President Sonia Gandhi rarely meets anybody.
Nor has Rahul made the picture clear if he would become the party president in the organisational elections officially slated in September-October. Some leaders have even started pushing for Priyanka to take over the leadership, pointing out that the ad hoc measures taken by Rahul on behalf of his mother left the party in a bad shape.
The party leaders are equally angry with Priyanka, attacking here for reserving 40% ticket for women in the elections, ignoring the established leaders and the way she hunted for women candidates without much experience. Leaders say this was not a good strategy.
Senior party leaders attribute the sad picture to the caste and communal politics played up by the BJP which is against the core principles of the Congress.
They also blame Rahul for the failure to read the situation correctly in Punjab except to summarily sack Capt. Amarinder Singh as the chief minister on the suspicion of his nexus with the BJP and push Charanjit Singh Channi to dramatically change the incumbency in 111 days. Rahul not only installed cricketer-turned Navjot Singh Sidhu as the state Congress president but allowed him to continuously attack Channi. The party’s failure to retain Punjab despite the farmers’ movement raises many questions about the political management.
Senior party leaders in Goa blame Rahul squarely for retaining Girish Chodankar as the state president, ignoring complaints of the Goa leader misleading Rahul. Former union minister P Chidambaram was rushed to Goa but he could do little in the face of the majority of the senior leaders pointing out the pitfalls.
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