Rahul Gandhi struggles to win polls with time running out

New Delhi: Standing beside his mother at the headquarters of India’s ruling Congress party after getting thumped in state elections two days ago, Rahul Gandhi again promised to overhaul the country’s oldest political vehicle.

The 43-year-old heir to India’s most famous political dynasty has limited time to turn things around as the government’s popularity sags with national elections due by May. His party has won 12 of 29 regional polls since he became a prominent campaigner in 2009, raising doubts about whether he can replicate the success of his ancestors.

“He is going to face a serious problem within the party where people who think he is a liability will start working against him,” said A.S. Narang, a professor at Indira Gandhi National Open University who has been studying Indian politics for more than four decades. “They will probably lose next year’s elections, and then people may start questioning his direction openly.”

At stake is the role of a party in power since 2004 that’s poured money into programmes targeting the rural poor as a record slump in the rupee this year contributes to rising prices. The country’s benchmark stock index climbed to a record on Monday after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won four state polls, giving it momentum to oust a government plagued by scandals that has overseen the slowest growth in a decade.

Frustrations

Frustration is showing among the eight coalition partners that joined with Congress to support Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. The final test before the national vote saw the BJP win the most seats in four of five state polls held over the past month, including two where Congress held power.

“Rahul Gandhi should look at what is failing, and he should fix it,” Tariq Anwar, junior agriculture minister and a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, Singh’s largest ally in parliament, told reporters on Monday. The outcome shows that people want strong, firm and decisive leaders who can take bold steps and implement policies.

Since he was first elected to parliament in 2004, Rahul Gandhi has faced high expectations. His great-grandfather was Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and an independence hero. Indira Gandhi, his grandmother, led the country for more than 15 years before her assassination in 1984.

Low profile

She was succeeded by Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul’s father, who lost power in 1989 and was killed by a suicide bomber two years later. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul’s mother, became president of the party in 1998, a post she still retains. Rahul took the vice-president position in January.

In nearly a decade as a lawmaker, Rahul has kept a low profile, giving fewer parliamentary speeches than other party leaders and declining Singh’s requests to join the government. Instead he has worked to build the party’s ground organization and introduced elections in its youth wing.

When put in charge of state campaigns, however, he has struggled to deliver.

 

pratima kumari 

pgdm 1st sem