 "Rahul Gandhi")
After the 2014 General Elections debacle and the terrible time in the states election of Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Haryana and Delhi - there seems to be a great unrest within the Congress party, reports news website Scroll.
Leaders from the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi era are planning to revolt against the current leadership of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.
Some senior Congress leaders are disappointed with the Congress vice-president’s “handling of organisational matters”, a section in the party is said to have started preliminary discussions about the possibility of forming of a party of their own without the Nehru-Gandhi family at the helm.
Scroll quoted a senior Congress leader saying that the changes made by Rahul Gandhi gave a clear impression that he didn’t favour the established leadership in the states as a conscious effort has been made to sideline their supporters.
The report further adds that many Congress leaders are unhappy because they can no longer approach party president Sonia Gandhi with their concerns which they could earlier. They also say it has become difficult to deal with Rahul Gandhi.
Some members have pointed out that Rahul’s plans do not include giving space to old-timers as the Nehru-Gandhi scion is said to be of the firm belief that they have "developed vested interests" over the years, the Scroll report added.
In a recent interview given to TOI, senior Congress leader and Punjab strongman Captain Amrinder Singh, commenting on Rahul’s leadership qualities, had said: "Rahul is young, he has his way of thinking. But eventually you have to realize India is a vast and diverse country and he will have to fall in line with the way India is. You can't change India , you have to fall in. You can't change India by making a new India in a different way, with modern management techniques. We still have people in the adivasi belt living on berries and catching bats at night and eating squirrels. That's human dignity at its lowest. Reality hasn't yet sunk in for Rahul. Going somewhere and sitting and eating food in a dalit house is not a solution, that's just dramatics."
Well, this is not an end of Congress’ internal problems. Assam’s senior leader and strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma after quiting the Congress in an interview to India Today said that that Rahul Gandhi talked about internal democracy in the party but when he conveyed his message to him, he refused to act on this by saying Congress followed a high-command structure and it was his prerogative to choose who would be the chief minister.”
So it remains to be seen what plans the Congress and its long-time supporters - many of them now disgruntled – have in their kitty. Only time will tell whether the Grand Old Party will re-energize or disintegrate itself under the guidance of RaGa.
