No threat to Rahul Gandhi's leadership for now but issues still remain

Congress won Punjab and emerged single largest party in Goa and Manipur

There is no threat to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's leadership, for now.

The recent poll debacle in Uttar Pradesh, where Rahul took a big gamble in joining hands with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, and the lost opportunity in Goa and Manipur, are not expected to pose any serious threats to the Congress vice president as his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi continues to provide overarching leadership to the grand old party.

Though there has been an unease within the party over the fact that the SP-Congress alliance did not work in UP, not many are speaking out.

Out of the total 403 assembly seats in UP, the SP contested 298 seats but won only 47 while the Congress contested 105 but won only seven.

Rahul, who broke his silence three days after the results in five states, played down the UP debacle.

"In Opposition, you have ups and downs. We had a little down in UP, we accept it," Rahul told reporters.

Rahul accused the BJP, which won 312 seats in UP, of having polarised the voters in the politically crucial state. "They did it, however, they won the election," he said.

In Goa, where the Congress did not secure a simple majority but emerged as the single largest party, it has accused the BJP of indulging in unconstitutional methods like horse trading to form a government. The story is the same in Manipur, where the BJP allegedly bought the support of smaller regional parties to stop the Congress from coming to power for the fourth term.

Rahul accused the BJP of subverting democracy through money power. "There were five state elections, two of them were won by the BJP and three by the Congress. In two of the states where we won, democracy has been undermined by them using money power. The mandate of the people of Goa and Manipur has been stolen by the BJP," he said.

The Congress challenged Goa governor Mridula Sinha's decision to invite Manohar Parrikar to be sworn-in as the chief minister on Tuesday, but the top court allowed it while asking the BJP leader to prove majority on Thursday.

The Congress has won 17 of the 40 Goa assembly seats and the BJP has won 13 but moved fast to secure the support of smaller parties to cross the halfway mark of 21 needed to form the government.

In Manipur, the Congress had won 28 of the total 60 seats while the BJP won 21 seats. However, the BJP named ex-Congress N Biren Singh as their CM nominee and claimed support of 4 members each of the National People's Party and the Naga People's Front, one of LJP and one Congress defector to claim a strength of 32 lawmakers.

Though party veterans Digvijaya Singh and Anil Shastri defended Rahul saying he is not responsible for the Assembly poll results, senior leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi said the party vice president has to think what he wants to do in the larger interest of the organisation. Chaturvedi, who noted the party was slow in Goa and Manipur, said the time for surgery in the Congress was over.

Last year, the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body in the party, passed a unanimous resolution urging Rahul to take over the reins of the organisation from Sonia, who is not keeping good health.

However, the CWC also extended Sonia's tenure as party president till end of 2017. Over the past year, Sonia has withdrawn herself, making Rahul the de facto party president as he took the key decisions and rallied the Opposition against demonetisation.

Indicating that Rahul's status remains unaltered, Punjab unit chief Amarinder Singh, who has delivered an impressive electoral victory to the party, met the Congress Vice President and invited him to attend his swearing-in ceremony on Thursday in Chandigarh.

Singh, who also discussed names of probable cabinet members with Rahul, said time was ripe for the latter to be promoted.