After much heartburn in the aftermath of the election defeat, and Congressmen from diverse quarters doing some public soul-searching on the way their vice-president Rahul Gandhi ran the poll campaign, party chief Sonia Gandhi did not name her son as the leader of the Congress group in the Lok Sabha.
This is as much a sign that she has paid heed to the criticism made of her deputy in the party hierarchy as of Mr Gandhi’s publicised reluctance to occupy that position. Either way, Mrs Gandhi has taken a wise decision. Mr Gandhi is well-intentioned and energetic, and frequently emphasises policies concerning a direct assault on poverty (fitting the mould of his parents, grandmother, and great-grandfather), but he has to show that he can be more attentive to Parliament proceedings by taking part in them regularly. He has been too much of a visitor to the House.
The task of party-building which has consumed a decade of Mr Gandhi’s life can hardly be divorced from making a strong impression in Parliament. That goes a long way in establishing all-round credibility as party-builder and leader, the absence of which may even have hurt the Congress in the recent Lok Sabha election since he was the party’s mascot, rather than Mrs Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who virtually bid adieu at his last press conference in January.
If Congress Lok Sabha numbers were strong as an Opposition unit, it is not unlikely that Mr Gandhi would be a strong contender for the Leader of the Opposition slot. In the event, the Congress president appointed M. Mallikarjun Kharge, railway minister in the UPA-2 government, as the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha earlier this week. This has surprised everyone as other names were being speculated. But Mr Kharge is a senior leader of the party from Karnataka from where the Congress has obtained its highest tally in the recent election. He is also an important dalit politician from his state who has never lost an Assembly election in 45 years.
These are credible qualifications for the leader of the largest Opposition party in Parliament. But the Congress chief has to ensure — she alone has the influence to do this — that he is ably supported by other senior Congress leaders who have been re-elected. Indeed, Mr Gandhi too can play a role here. It is noteworthy that Mrs Gandhi “appointed” her party’s new leader in the Lok Sabha. She didn’t opt for an election, perhaps fearing that this might stoke ambitions and cause a cleavage in the party’s parliamentary wing when it needs to be united after a crushing defeat. Eventually, of course, an all-round internal democratisation process is unavoidable.
