On 4 December 2013, when Arvind Kejriwal’s newly formed Aam Aadmi Party won 28 seats in the Delhi Assembly, proving all election predictions wrong, Rahul Gandhi had said that he would learn from Kejriwal’s success. Almost 11 years later, Rahul Gandhi is now performing better than the Chief Minister of Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal) and has even gone ahead of him.
Before moving ahead, let us tell you that, the main supporters of Rahul Gandhi say that this young leader of the Gandhi family had planned to oust ‘Kejriwal’ long ago, even before Kejriwal emerged as a political disruptor, but ‘ Rahul Gandhi was trapped by the Congress old guard, his mother Sonia Gandhi’s caution and his own dynastic background.
Today, as the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi has emerged as a courageous politician both inside and outside the Lok Sabha. He dramatically claimed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was planning to raid and arrest him. He made this claim at 1:52 am on a microblogging platform. This timing is significant because over the years, many Congress leaders would often complain about Rahul’s unavailability from 10 pm to 10 am.
What will ED gain from the challenge?
By challenging the ED to take action against him, it seems that Rahul has made many political calculations. If ED does not summon him, Rahul will achieve a victory of sorts. If the agency goes ahead, Rahul will term the ED’s move as an act of political vendetta. More importantly, it will give credibility to Rahul’s claim of having inside and prior information from the ED. The current composition of the Lok Sabha is such that the joint opposition represents 47 percent as against 53 percent of the ruling alliance. In such a situation, the possibility cannot be ruled out that a section of the bureaucracy may be sympathetic towards the opposition and especially the Leader of the Opposition (LOP).
Like Kejriwal in 2012-14, Rahul Gandhi continues to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged closeness to some business houses and has achieved some success in this. During the Lok Sabha campaign, PM Modi tried to rope in some industrialists as fundraisers for the Congress and the opposition. This comment of PM Modi was seen as a quick reaction on his part under pressure from Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi has been continuously taking names of business houses in his speeches in the Lok Sabha. Every time there is opposition from the Speaker or the ruling party benches, Rahul’s allegation that it is a matter of mutual benefit gets strengthened.
Both Rahul Gandhi and Kejriwal have not been traditional politicians. Former bureaucrat Kejriwal relied heavily on NGOs and civil society and benefited greatly from it. In fact, he converted his NGO into a political party. Today, key members of Rahul Gandhi’s team come from NGO and activist backgrounds. During both the phases of Bharat Jodo Yatra, more than 150 civil society organizations from 21 states participated in Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
In the last few months, instead of becoming a popular personality, Rahul Gandhi has tried to become a ‘polarizing face’ against PM Modi. Like Kejriwal in 2014, he challenges PM Modi on every platform. In fact, Kejriwal had contested against Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in 2014. Many in the Congress believe that if a member of the Gandhi family, such as Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi, had dared to contest from Varanasi in 2024, they could have defeated Modi.
Like Kejriwal before him, Rahul Gandhi has also started communicating and talking directly to the public. One day he can be seen meeting loco pilots, and the next day interacting with porters at the Anand Vihar railway station. Even during the journey, Rahul Gandhi made it a point to stop and talk to people without any hesitation. Have developed the habit. After this he raises their problems inside or outside the Parliament. This concept of direct contact and communication has given Rahul a big advantage over those who give priority to security arrangements and advice.
Although there is no dress code in Indian politics, Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on his trademark white T-shirt has gone beyond mufflers. Choosing clothes in Indian politics is a difficult process because you do not have any specific pattern. The politician presents himself as a clean person with a strong sense of morality and spirituality. The color white is associated with all these characteristics. Therefore, Rahul’s white T-shirt gives a strong political message and is a symbol of connect with the youth.
Rahul Gandhi’s risk-taking ability and his spontaneity have a greater chance of success because the legacy and influence of Congress is far greater than that of any other political party. Therefore, it is a bit surprising how Akhilesh Yadav responded to a question related to the formation of a shadow cabinet and a shadow prime minister. The Samajwadi Party supremo asked in an interview why there should be only one shadow Prime Minister.
“Why can’t we have two, three, or more shadow prime ministers,” Akhilesh quickly said, as if reflecting the concerns of other India coalition partners like TMC, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), RJD, DMK etc. Have been. If the Congress performs well in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the emergence of Rahul Gandhi in the opposition ranks will become even more important, as before.
(The views presented here are the author’s own)