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| Sonia Gandhi, Rahul |
New Delhi, June 30: Sonia Gandhi’s win may be Rahul Gandhi’s loss.
Sonia is set to become the Congress president with the longest uninterrupted term. But in all probability, she will take the “consensus route” on July 25 to stay in the top party job for the next three years.
If Sonia misses that date, sources said the party polls would have to be completed by the December deadline set by the central election commission, which requires all parties to conduct internal polls at regular intervals. But with the Bihar polls scheduled in October-November and Bengal elections in summer next year, the majority of Congress leaders want to wrap up the election of Sonia as quickly as possible.
The outcome may not gel with Rahul’s efforts, though. As general secretary, he has been trying to end the “nomination raj”. Over the past few years, he has worked to revive inner-party democracy by holding Youth Congress and National Student Union of India (NSUI) polls in several states and at all levels of the party.
Congress office bearers said, however, that Rahul’s zeal for internal democracy did not contradict the “consensual” choice of Sonia. “First, there is clear unanimity over Soniaji’s uninterrupted continuation. Second, the political culture of the party is in the process of evolution and elections at higher levels may take more time,” a general secretary said.
Sonia has been Congress chief since 1998. Her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi became party president at the age of 42 in 1959, but did not have a continuous term. After Emergency, though, Indira remained in the post till her death on October 31, 1984.
Jawaharlal Nehru combined the office of the Prime Minister with that of the party chief, but his years as Congress head were spread over the pre-Independence era — 1929, 1930, 1935-38 — and the post-Independence phase of 1951-55.
Rajiv Gandhi held both posts from 1984-1991, as did Narasimha Rao from 1991-96. Sitaram Kesri was party chief from 1996-98.
The last time the Congress had witnessed semblance of a contest for the party chief was in 1999 when Jitendra Prasada took on Sonia. Prasada, who had served as political secretary to Narasimha Rao, was initially discouraged and then heckled at every state Congress office he visited. Eventually, Sonia got over 96 per cent of the votes. But the massive one-sided verdict still had the faithful wondering about the identity and mental make-up of the minuscule minority — the 4 per cent that had voted against the leadership.
Under the Congress constitution, the party chief is elected by over 10,000 state-level delegates. But under certain circumstances, the elections can be held even if 10 per cent of the state delegates are in place.
The party has an in-house “central election authority”, headed by general secretary Oscar Fernandes. Ostensibly, the authority is supposed to organise “polls” at all levels but hasn’t done so, apparently because of manpower shortage.
If Sonia is re-elected, she will start appointing “ad hoc” state-level bodies. The nomination of Bengal party chief Manas Bhuniya is being seen as an example.