The next Rahul is the Rahul of the late 90s. Seeking votes for mother. People were seeing a future Indira in sister Priyanka Gandhi and hesitation towards politics in Rahul. Rahul entered politics to get himself out of this embarrassment. Scattered Hindi, discomfort with crowds, difficulty in understanding and quick judgment. Rahul became a constant face at road shows and became the Congress candidate from Amethi in 2004. This was the easiest ground for Rahul. Saw and knew. Rahul won the election from here. This streak continued till 2014 and Rahul reached Parliament from Amethi three times.
During this time, the family and the party gave him the responsibility of the student body NSUI in 2007. He was also made the General Secretary of the party. Rahul conducted several experiments in the student unit using Lyngdoh's recommendations, but these did not turn out to be very fruitful. The biggest incident about his tenure as General Secretary that is still remembered in the public mind is his opening into politics by tearing up Manmohan Singh's Ordinance to prevent convicted public representatives and publicly denouncing his own party's Prime Minister.
Bond of Inheritance
Rahul was becoming an uneasy heir to a party that had enjoyed 10 years of power under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, made comfortable by Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari. Rahul's style started to be questioned. Rahul's ability started to be questioned. Rahul's politics were not serious or mature. The remaining effort was completed by the Anna movement and the opposition parties of Congress politics. It was the beginning of social media and in it, Rahul, a fly caught in the syrup of cynicism, became a natural medium for everyone to make any satire or mockery.
Rahul, on the other hand, was seen struggling within and outside the party for his style of politics. Congress was hit by laziness. No workers on the ground and the burden of many heads on their shoulders. When the party lost in 2014, Rahul started trying to build a new Congress. But in the desert of defeat, the Modi model and one failed reform after another left Rahul increasingly beleaguered. Many leaders left the party. Many continued to oppose Rahul, citing Sonia and sometimes Priyanka Gandhi as Jamaat prospects.
During this period, Rahul became a pappu for the opposition and a problem for the party. He rose to the post of party vice-president in 2013 and Congress president in 2017, but the 2019 defeat gave lip service to the rebellion. Rahul had also lost the Amethi seat and the factionalism in the Congress now started to surface and became a topic of public debate.
Several key faces including Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Manish Tiwari, Sandeep Dixit, Ghulam Nabi Azad, RPN Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasad, Captain Amarinder, Virender Singh, Ashwini Kumar, SM Krishna, Ashok Chavan, who either quit the party. Gave or rebelled. Even in the elections, Rahul's experiments did not translate into victories on the ground. Congress and Rahul continued to weaken.
India travel and social justice
Bharat Jodo Yatra became an important stop in Rahul's political journey. Until now, Rahul was wearing glasses. But now it was time to take off the glasses. Not from the eyes but from the sight. Coming out of an old frame, Rahul started seeing the country, society and people anew. His belief about the country changed and so did the country's perception of him. For the first time, people saw that this young face in a white t-shirt from cuffed pajamas was doing something. Behind his growing, disheveled beard, people now began to see a more honest image, and the negative narrative towards Rahul also eased.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra became an important milestone in Rahul's political journey. Till now Rahul was wearing glasses. But now it was time to take off the glasses. Not with the eyes, but with the sight. Coming out of the old frame, Rahul started seeing the country, society and people anew. His perception of the country changed and so did the perception of him. For the first time, this young face in a white T-shirt seemed to be doing something. People saw the sincerity behind this disheveled and overgrown beard and the negativity towards Rahul started to gain momentum.
Another big mantra became social justice. Rahul has now made the issue of rights and interests of women, backward communities, Dalits, minorities, tribals and the poor his language. Rahul's narrative has now become a propyl narrative. Rahul started attacking the corporate directly. without any mercy. Rights givers started talking about reforms. Started questioning political corruption. Guaranteed special facilities in the election manifesto to the people who are economically backward. Amidst all these, the big words are caste justice, safeguarding the constitution and stopping encroachment on reservations.
A large portion of the country's population relates to this narrative. In this election, it was again seen that Muslim votes are returning to Rahul Gandhi and Congress. Representatives of Dalits are also seen surrendering one by one. A large section of the country's population now sees potential for itself in Rahul. Rahul has carried the torch for social justice across castes.
Rahul of 2024
After the general election results, Rahul is in front of everyone in a new avatar. The glasses are gone. The storm has calmed. The opposition within the party has either quieted down or surrendered or lost its last chance by losing the election. The big faces close to the parents are now moving behind the scenes. Most of Wirasat's families are now prostrate or paralyzed. Now the ideology of Rahul is the ideology of Congress. Rahul's thinking is the narrative of Congress. Now Rahul is at the center of it all.
The Congress that exists today is Rahul's Congress. Rahul's people are now taking over the Congress organization. Older managers are now limited to meetings. Gradually the crowd will also reduce there. New faces have emerged in the party. which have been strengthened in the States. Their representation in central committees has also increased. Rahul is shaping today's Congress and coming out of its old shell.
This is the first election in 15 years when the words Rahul and Pappu have not been used together. The opponents and the opposition have realized that Rahul is no longer Pappu and they have nothing but loss to gain by saying so. The number of people listening to Rahul on social media has increased. This time the Congress advertisements on TV dominated the BJP advertisements. The media was deprived of Rahul's interviews due to the trolling that Rahul had to face through old interview reels. Rahul thus deprived the media of an opportunity and also gave a strong message.
Rahul has a big role in UP's mandate. It was not easy to bring Dalits to the fold of the Samajwadi Party. The PDA formula was a panacea for Akhilesh but Rahul acted as a bridge for him. The narrative of the Constitution and reservation became an issue. But the real challenge was to shift the votes of Dalits to SP. It could succeed only because of Rahul's efforts.
The last 10 years have seen the Muslim vote split in UP. This vote bank, hanging between the SP and the BSP, was seen to be favoring the Congress for some time now. Akhilesh recognized this mood-shift early in 2024 and gave his previously failed pair another chance. Sapano's old MY formula only succeeded because the Congress went along with it. Today Congress is in a strong position. NDA also got a clear majority. But even there the balance is not found. In the coming days, Congress will become stronger and will be seen in the role of a strong opposition in front of the country. Rahul will be his hero. It is not that there are no challenges against Rahul or that he has no shortcomings. But it is not necessary to be an ideal in politics. In politics, it is necessary to look outside the glasses. It is necessary to look far. Mohabbat Shop is now open and waiting for new customers.
 1_30.png)
 1_30.png)
