Eventually, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) did have its meeting on October 16,2021 which was a long pending demand made in August 2020 by the dissenting G23 Congress leaders who have been demanding revamp of the party organization and to elect a full time party president after Rahul, (who was “elected” as president in 2017), quit the post in 2019 following the second successive disastrous results in the two Lok Sabha elections. At such a time, when the party needed Rahul to lead and rebuild, he instead chose to run away and escaped to take another of his famous ‘sabbatical’ in a foreign country. After Rahul quit, Sonia came out of retirement to preserve the family chair as interim president till her son is persuaded to sit on the family throne. Veteran Congress leaders had thoughtfully written to Sonia to halt the slide and restore back normalcy within the party folds by revamping the set up and electing a full time president. The G23 leaders like veteran Congressmen Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari, Anand Sharma, PJ Kurien, Renuka Chaudhary, Milind Deora, Mukul Wasnik, Jitin Prasada, Bhupendra Singh Hooda, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, M Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, Ajay Singh, Raj Babbar, Arvind Singh Lovely, Kaul Singh Thakur, Kuldeep Sharma, Yoganand Shastri, Sandeep Dixit and Vivek Tankha. Many of them have been union ministers, chief ministers or the party’s state unit chiefs. The CWC meeting was convened under the pretext of discussion about party strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in 2022 and the farmers issue that led to the Lakhimpur incident on October 3. The CWC meeting, if anything confirmed that the Congress is suffering from brain damage. Sonia’s attack against the party’s G23 was more biting than her charges against the BJP. The CWC comprising of ‘loyalists/yes persons’ resolved to appoint Rahul Gandhi as party president since it was felt that the remote controller of the super high command, who has consistently proved a failure in recent elections (even losing Kerala where he represents a parliamentary constituency) is now ready to reoccupy the chair. The CWC has set the date for elections by September 2022, so that Sonia continues as ‘interim president’ and giving sufficient time to prepare grounds for Rahul Gandhi’s return as party chief. A recent write up about the ways of the Congress, explained that the family may have retained its dynastic legacy but the party is on its way to extinction. According to media reports, BJP leaders, in private conversations, call Rahul as their ‘biggest asset.’ All media polls pit Rahul against Modi and this is one thing that the BJP likes best since it makes it easier for Modi to effect a win anytime. Though the Modi government has bungled badly in many areas and literally handed over opportunities to the Congress on a platter, yet Rahul has failed to exploit it. It is because Rahul is a very poor orator, a poor leader and worse, having limited capabilities. To the credit of Rahul, is honest that he is unfit to be the leader of India’s oldest party but is made to feel duty bound to his family to reoccupy the post of party chief. Many have said that the Congress cannot survive without the Gandhis but the moot point today is whether the party can survive even with the Gandhis?
