INDIA’s third meeting ended on Friday with the opposition front forming a 13-member coordination committee along with a resolution to put up a united and fierce contest against the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year. There were, however, some meaningful omissions from the committee list, top among which was the Gandhis.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s is also missing but that has been compensated with TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee being part of the committee, which may also be a sign that the baton is being passed onto him.
Sonia Gandhi does not want to partake in seat sharing talks
But the Gandhis staying away from the committee carries a number of messages. First and foremost is that they do not want to hijack the agenda ahead of the most important poll battle.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi headed the United Progressive Alliance for 10 years and, with it being disbanded, she wants to completely let go. Hence, she has decided to stay away from what is going to be the critical and tricky discussion on seat sharing.
It is also an acknowledgement of the fact that her innings to stitch up a coalition is over and she has decided to pass on the responsibility. But, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should have been in the committee but he, too, has chosen to stay away.
Bid to appease smaller parties?
According to sources, both the Gandhis are of the opinion that if they get involved in the nitty gritty of the alliance, there is a danger of high expectations and adding to the insecurities of smaller parties. During UPA rule, many allies like the NCP would often complain that the Congress behaved like the “big brother”. This time, too, some like TMC and AAP fear the same.
This was evident in how the Congress quickly withdrew a poster of INDIA leaders with Rahul Gandhi’s face at the forefront. Facing backlash over the omission of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, the party deleted it and released a fresh one which included chief ministers of opposition-ruled states.
The Congress wants to scale down its presence, in the sense that it wants to give others a chance. A committee without the Gandhis would give such an impression. But, this does not rule out their prominent role, particularly Rahul’s.
Rahul Gandhi to play ‘crusader’
At a joint speech after the Mumbai meet ended, he made it a point to raise his pet issues of Adani and China. But the challenge is to see if other parties like AAP and TMC will agree with him on calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi corrupt.
In 2019, the ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ slogan did not work, neither with voters nor with some leaders in his own party. Some like the TMC feel that a personal attack on the BJP would only backfire like it did in 2019.
While the Gandhis have opted out of the coordination committee, it is clear that Rahul will play a prominent role as the “crusader”. His party would want him to do so and the Sonia Gandhi of 2004, who extensively travelled to take on the BJP then, will now be reincarnated in 2023-2024.
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