Coronation Club Eleven

Interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s decision to constitute an 11-member consultative group, with her son Rahul Gandhi as its member, has triggered speculation once again over the Wayanad MP’s return as president of the beleaguered party. Such rumours have waxed and waned ever since Sonia took back charge of the party in August last year. What gives a sense of increased credibility to the current round of gossip is the group’s composition, with its disproportiona­tely higher representation of Rahul’s acolytes against party veterans.

The group held its first meeting—through video conference—on April 20 and will meet every alternate day to discuss various aspects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and its impact on India’s tanking economy. Though former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the group’s chairman, “Rahul directed the group to come up with specific sector-wise proposals”, a member of the panel tells Outlook. A Congress veteran says the immediate concern of the group is “formulating the party’s views on the current situation” but “Rahul’s consent for involving himself directly in these strategy sessions is a clear indication of his willingness to return to the leadership pedestal”.

Party leaders say Sonia and Rahul have finally thrashed out a blueprint for the Nehru-Gandhi scion’s return as Congress chief—a post he quit following an 18-month stint that had ended with the party’s drubbing in last year’s Lok Sabha polls. A key component of this blueprint, says a senior leader, is Sonia’s “grudging acceptance” of her son’s insistence for a “radical overhaul” of the party by weeding out tired faces of the party’s old guard, retaining only those who bring domain expertise or electoral muscle to the party and inducting those he trusts on prominent positions.

A cursory glance at the composition of the consultative group validates this view. Veterans Ahmed Patel, A.K. Antony, Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma who invariably figured in all important party panels in the past have not been included in this group. On the contrary, members of Rahul’s still expanding coterie—K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Praveen Chakravarty, Gourav Vallabh, Rohan Gupta and Supriya Shrinate—has been given a spot. Though Dr Singh, P. Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh belong to the old guard, “Rahul regularly defers to them for advice on economic and social issues”. Not really identified as a member of either Sonia or Rahul’s coterie, Manish Tewari has made an impressive comeback of sorts; riding on the back of his pointed interventions against the Centre on economic, legal and policy matters, both inside Parliament and outside of it.

Rahul may seem to be having his way for now. However, Congress sources admit the way forward will largely depend on the team he chooses and “his own commitment to stay the course”. A party leader says the “need is to find a method in the party’s madness and not have madness become the method”.