5 reasons why Ashok Gehlot as Congress president may help party | India News
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NEW DELHI: With the election for the Congress president’s post due next month, names of probable candidates have started doing the rounds in political galleries. If it will be a Nehru-Gandhi, will it be Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra? If it has to be a non-Nehru-Gandhi, who would that person be to succeed a Nehru-Gandhi after 24 years as Congress president?
Several non-Nehru-Gandhi names are being talked about ahead of declaration of the schedule for election. They include Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Mukul Wasnik, Pawan Bansal and PL Punia. Among the G-23 members, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari or Shashi Tharoor may contest the election.
Soni had hoisted the flag at the Congress headquarters in Delhi on Independence Day in the absence of Sonia Gandhi who was not well.
However, the name of Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot shot into prominence after his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi for half-an-hour on Tuesday morning. He subsequently left for Gujarat as he is the senior observer of the coastal state which is facing assembly election later this year.
Gehlot’s choice as Congress president may indeed be a masterstroke for the party. His ascension to the coveted post, which has not been held by anyone other than the Nehru-Gandhis since 1998, may be a turning point in the history of the party which has not come to power at the Centre since 2014.
Though Gehlot is a non-Nehru-Gandhi, he is considered to be a Nehru-Gandhi loyalist. He is consulted by both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi on important occasions.
He played an active role in the protest held by the Congress when Rahul was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for five days and over 50 hours in June and Sonia for three days in July.
As Rajasthan CMGehlot would remain present during the protests on the streets. He was detained a number of times for several hours. He took the lead and held press conferences in Delhi.
Gehlot also has a lengthy political background. He was elected to the Lok Sabha five times – his first election was from Jodhpur in 1980.
He was a Union minister on three occasions and was in the cabinet of three Congress PMs – Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao.
Gehlot is also a five-term MLA and a three-term CM. He has also been the All India Congress Committee general secretary.
These are the five advantages that may accrue to the Congress if Ashok Gehlot is anointed as the Congress president:
1. Non-Nehru-Gandhi president
If Gehlot is elected as Congress president, he would be the first leader outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to adorn the post in over two decades. Sonia Gandhi succeeded Sitaram Kesri as Congress president in April 1998.
She made way for her son Rahul Gandhi in December 2017 in the midst of the Gujarat assembly election. Rahul quit the post in July 2019 after the Congress’s defeat in the Lok Sabha election held that year.
Sonia Gandhi took over as interim president of the Congress and continues in the post till date. In the process, she has become the longest-serving Congress president since the inception of the grand old party in 1885.
2. Redressal of G-23’s grievance
A group of 23 dissenting Congress leaders had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 demanding internal reforms in the party. The group included leaders such as Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Jitin Prasada. Sibal and Prasada among these five have quit the party.
Recently, Azad and Sharma quit from the posts they were offered or which they held in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh respectively.
G-23 demanded major reforms in the Congress, collective decision-making and full-time visible leadership. They also favoured a non-Gandhi, who would be accessible to all, to become the party president.
Gehlot’s appointment as Congress president is likely to redress the grievance of not just the G-23 members but also the other leaders and workers who nurse the same complaints against the party high command.
3. Parivarvaad negation
A major attack which the Congress is subjected to from its main rival, the BJP, is about ‘parivarvaad’ (dynasty politics). Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hit the Congress and other regional parties which have a family at their helm.
As recently as in his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 75th anniversary of India’s independence on August 15, Modi spoke of parivarvaad as an ailment afflicting the country and the need to get rid of it.
By appointing Gehlot to the Congress president’s post, Modi and BJP’s attack about parivarvaad would get negated.
4. Rajasthan tussle
Ashok Gehlot’s election as Congress president is likely to solve the inner party feud in Rajasthan which goes to assembly polls in 2023.
Sachin Pilot has been cribbing ever since Gehlot was made Rajasthan CM in 2018. Pilot claims that as Rajasthan Congress president, he was the rightful claimant to the CM’s post after the party won the 2018 assembly election.
He revolted against Gehlot and the party leadership in 2020. However, he was convinced by the top leaders to return to the party fold, which he did. However, he lost both the posts in the process – that of Congress state president and deputy chief minister.
If Gehlot becomes Congress president, Pilot may be announced as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 assembly election, thus solving a long internal feud in the state.
5. North Indian OBC card
The politics of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) dominates North India to a large extent. Several CMs, such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Gehlot belong to the OBC community.
PM Modi himself comes from the OBC category. OBCs play a major role in the politics of several northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan.
With Gehlot at the helm of the Congress, the party can aim at eating into the OBC votes of the BJP in states and also at the national level.
Several non-Nehru-Gandhi names are being talked about ahead of declaration of the schedule for election. They include Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar, Mukul Wasnik, Pawan Bansal and PL Punia. Among the G-23 members, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari or Shashi Tharoor may contest the election.
Soni had hoisted the flag at the Congress headquarters in Delhi on Independence Day in the absence of Sonia Gandhi who was not well.
However, the name of Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot shot into prominence after his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi for half-an-hour on Tuesday morning. He subsequently left for Gujarat as he is the senior observer of the coastal state which is facing assembly election later this year.
Gehlot’s choice as Congress president may indeed be a masterstroke for the party. His ascension to the coveted post, which has not been held by anyone other than the Nehru-Gandhis since 1998, may be a turning point in the history of the party which has not come to power at the Centre since 2014.
Though Gehlot is a non-Nehru-Gandhi, he is considered to be a Nehru-Gandhi loyalist. He is consulted by both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi on important occasions.
He played an active role in the protest held by the Congress when Rahul was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for five days and over 50 hours in June and Sonia for three days in July.
As Rajasthan CMGehlot would remain present during the protests on the streets. He was detained a number of times for several hours. He took the lead and held press conferences in Delhi.
Gehlot also has a lengthy political background. He was elected to the Lok Sabha five times – his first election was from Jodhpur in 1980.
He was a Union minister on three occasions and was in the cabinet of three Congress PMs – Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao.
Gehlot is also a five-term MLA and a three-term CM. He has also been the All India Congress Committee general secretary.
These are the five advantages that may accrue to the Congress if Ashok Gehlot is anointed as the Congress president:
1. Non-Nehru-Gandhi president
If Gehlot is elected as Congress president, he would be the first leader outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to adorn the post in over two decades. Sonia Gandhi succeeded Sitaram Kesri as Congress president in April 1998.
She made way for her son Rahul Gandhi in December 2017 in the midst of the Gujarat assembly election. Rahul quit the post in July 2019 after the Congress’s defeat in the Lok Sabha election held that year.
Sonia Gandhi took over as interim president of the Congress and continues in the post till date. In the process, she has become the longest-serving Congress president since the inception of the grand old party in 1885.
2. Redressal of G-23’s grievance
A group of 23 dissenting Congress leaders had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 demanding internal reforms in the party. The group included leaders such as Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Jitin Prasada. Sibal and Prasada among these five have quit the party.
Recently, Azad and Sharma quit from the posts they were offered or which they held in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh respectively.
G-23 demanded major reforms in the Congress, collective decision-making and full-time visible leadership. They also favoured a non-Gandhi, who would be accessible to all, to become the party president.
Gehlot’s appointment as Congress president is likely to redress the grievance of not just the G-23 members but also the other leaders and workers who nurse the same complaints against the party high command.
3. Parivarvaad negation
A major attack which the Congress is subjected to from its main rival, the BJP, is about ‘parivarvaad’ (dynasty politics). Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hit the Congress and other regional parties which have a family at their helm.
As recently as in his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 75th anniversary of India’s independence on August 15, Modi spoke of parivarvaad as an ailment afflicting the country and the need to get rid of it.
By appointing Gehlot to the Congress president’s post, Modi and BJP’s attack about parivarvaad would get negated.
4. Rajasthan tussle
Ashok Gehlot’s election as Congress president is likely to solve the inner party feud in Rajasthan which goes to assembly polls in 2023.
Sachin Pilot has been cribbing ever since Gehlot was made Rajasthan CM in 2018. Pilot claims that as Rajasthan Congress president, he was the rightful claimant to the CM’s post after the party won the 2018 assembly election.
He revolted against Gehlot and the party leadership in 2020. However, he was convinced by the top leaders to return to the party fold, which he did. However, he lost both the posts in the process – that of Congress state president and deputy chief minister.
If Gehlot becomes Congress president, Pilot may be announced as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 assembly election, thus solving a long internal feud in the state.
5. North Indian OBC card
The politics of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) dominates North India to a large extent. Several CMs, such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Gehlot belong to the OBC community.
PM Modi himself comes from the OBC category. OBCs play a major role in the politics of several northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan.
With Gehlot at the helm of the Congress, the party can aim at eating into the OBC votes of the BJP in states and also at the national level.
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