New Kids On The Block: The Emergence Of Young Leaders This Election

For now, we find the familiar but old faces preening themselves on the national stage. Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and others still have the potential to muck up our collective lives and constitutional arrangements. Perhaps we need not despair all that much.

Because the good news is that the just-concluded 2024 Lok Sabha elections have produced a new crop of young leaders who have crowbarred their way to national attention; this youngish lot has demonstrated a new energy and a new openness to ideas and a new willingness to recognise and respect the need for change.

Of course, the most outstanding new voice to emerge from the 2024 battle is a de-pappufied Rahul Gandhi. His resurrection from the depths of despair and defeat in 2019 to a more-than-respectable score of 99 Lok Sabha seats for the Congress is a story that needs to be told separately.

No less arresting is the story of the many new kids on the block. And, these kids are going to take over the streets in the next few years. Watch out, at least for these three:

Akhilesh Yadav

By far the most important new kid on the block is Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, whose exertions in Uttar Pradesh have not only denied the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a Lok Sabha majority, but have also punctured the Hindutva balloon in India’s largest state, the epicentre of the Ayodhya movement.

Going into the 2024 battle, Akhilesh had to prove more than one point. First, whether he had the stamina and the stomach and the temperament to slug it out till the seventh round in a gruelling and bloody combat. In the arena, he faced the formidable Yogi Adityanath, with his own cult following and an extremely partisan administration behind him. And, then, there were Modi and Amit Shah throwing their weight against the Samajwadis.

To the satisfaction of his cheerleaders, Akhilesh stayed the course and got a second wind when crowds thronged his joint rallies with Gandhi. Now, having secured 37 Lok Sabha seats for his party, Akhilesh has put to rest all doubts about his leadership of the SP; in particular, no one in his extended family—especially, neither the unlovable Shivpal Yadav nor the crafty but unreliable Ram Gopal Yadav—will have the gumption to question his leadership. The mantle of Mulayam Singh Yadav now stands firmly passed on to Akhilesh.

Moreover, Akhilesh had to demonstrate that he has the imagination, the strategic clarity, and the tactical flexibility to expand his party’s social coalition beyond the Yadavs and the Muslims. He deepened and broadened his platform and called it PDA—Pichde, Dalit and Alpasankhyak (Backwards, Dalits and Minorities). And, it worked.

Election time is one legitimate opportunity for individuals, groups and communities to bargain and negotiate with the “dominant” players; and, the art of building a broad social coalition that would yield electoral dividends depends on a leader’s ability to persuade critical elements from the rival coalition to defect to his side. Akhilesh succeeded in enticing enough Dalits from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fold to vote for his party. The defection of the Dalit votes towards the Samajwadi-Congress alliance turned out to be the game changer.

And, of course, Akhilesh demonstrated political perspicacity in understanding that the Muslim community was determined not to divide its vote and that it had made up its mind to line up behind the Congress as the only national party that could challenge and stop the BJP’s Hindutva juggernaut. Having reached this judgement, Akhilesh saw to it that there was an electoral understanding with the Congress, despite many hiccups; and, then, he went on to produce an exciting jugalbandi with Gandhi. The rest is history.

Priyanka Gandhi

It is ironic that Modi’s decade-old campaign against ‘parivarvad’ has ended up consecrating the idea of the family role in party politics. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has established herself as a public figure, and an articulate, passionate and presentable campaigner for the Congress Party. When the 2024 campaign began, both the brother and sister (Rahul and Priyanka) appeared reluctant, tentative, and unconfident of their message or of the acceptability of their political personas. There were unappetising reports of her husband, the unlovable Robert Vadra, itching to enter the electoral fray either in Rae Bareli or Amethi. The family not only warded off the son-in-law, but also found the inner reserve to plunge aggressively into a punishing campaign schedule.

Unlike Gandhi who had earned a leadership role for himself by undertaking two rather long “yatras,” Priyanka had no credentials to offer other than being a Gandhi. Once on the campaign trail, she found a voice and discovered her mojo. Gone was the reserved, stay-at-arm’s-length-from-me demeanour; she derived energy and enthusiasm from the cadres and the crowd.

Being a better and more fluent Hindi speaker than her brother, Priyanka was able to challenge whatever “jumla” Prime Minister Modi was able to throw up. She mocked, taunted and provoked the greatest demagogue to debase himself in campaign meeting after meeting.

The 2024 vote has revived the Congress as the leading challenger to the BJP; with this revival, the Gandhi family also stands resurrected. And, Priyanka Gandhi has served notice that she is not going to settle for a subordinate role. No one should be surprised if, by the end of 2025, Priyanka takes over as the next president of the Indian National Congress.

Tejashwi Yadav

Though not quite an outright winner like Akhilesh Yadav in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Tejashwi Yadav has firmly positioned himself as the next leader of Bihar. Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav have had their innings; Sushil Kumar Modi and Ram Vilas Paswan are no longer around. The leadership landscape in Bihar is ripe for re-mulching.

Having emerged as the sole political heir to Lalu Prasad Yadav, it was up to Tejashwi, as the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), to lead the INDIA bloc campaign charge in Bihar. And it was a role he performed well. The final Lok Sabha tally may not be all that flattering, but what is undoubtedly impressive is that he is acknowledged, by one and all, as the new pan-Bihar leader.

In recent years, he has conducted himself as a sober public figure, putting behind the yesteryear image of a boisterous, and sometimes wayward son of a rustic, boorish father. He was restrained, responsible and reasonable at the hustings; no personal attacks, no cheap and abusive rhetoric.

More importantly, this campaign saw him endeavour to undertake a task that has eluded his much more seasoned father all these years: enlarge the RJD’s appeal beyond its core support base of the Yadavs and the Muslims. He has been lauded for proposing a social coalition of BAAP (Bahujan, Aggadi, Adhik-abadi, and Poor). He succeeded visibly in roping in the Sahanis and the Kushwahas; though it is also clear that he and his core party managers (mostly Yadavs) still have a long way to go before they can acquire sharper accommodative skills and habits. The game of building and sustaining wider social coalitions is a work constantly in progress in this age of massive churnings in Indian society.

With age on his side, Tejashwi Yadav has earned the right to dominate the leadership stage in Bihar. No one can forget that—nor will anyone be allowed to forget.

Not just these three. Others like Abhishek Banerjee, Chirag Paswan, and Kanhaiya Kumar will be needed to be heeded. India can feel reassured that there is young talent, crowding the dugout to replace the gaggle of failed and faltering leaders.

(Views expressed are personal)

Harish Khare is a Delhi-based senior journalist and public commentator

(This appeared in the print as 'New Kids On The Block')