Kharge plays perfect foil to Rahul as Cong braces for 2024
While Rahul has led the party’s biggest ever mass contact program successfully, Kharge’s new found aggression against BJP has added to the Congress’ fire power. Gandhi scion has also been careful in not stepping on party president’s toes by staying off his turf, writes Amit Agnihotri
The Rahul Gandhi-Mallikarjun Kharge combo appears to be working fine in driving the grand old party which is bracing for nine assembly polls this year ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Over the past years, the grand old party had been lying low as it had suffered several electoral losses both at the state and at the central level and was desperately looking for ways to revive the Congress across the country ahead of 2024.
Besides the organizational issues, the party was also facing the leadership issue as former party chief Sonia Gandhi suffered from ill health and Rahul Gandhi was reluctant for a second term.
A plan was then chalked out to hold a brainstorming session in Rajasthan’s Udaipur in May where over 400 leaders, both young and old, debated and finalized a blueprint for 2024.
Rahul Gandhi would launch a nation-wide yatra and the party would elect a new president. Rahul started his yatra from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 and in October, Kharge was elected the new party chief.
Since then, Rahul has led the party’s biggest ever mass contact program successfully, which will help the party get additional votes, while Kharge has been managing the organization which needed regular supervision.
The veteran has revived the earlier practice of holding open house sessions at the Congress headquarters where party workers can come and meet the party president without an appointment. The move is expected to take the top party official closer to the ground level functionaries.
Rahul, on his part, has braved the rough life of being on the road for the past 130 days and has reduced the gap between the voters and the grand old party.
The Rahul-Kharge arrangement appears to be working fine for the grand old party though the critics had raised questions over the Congress opting for an 80-year-old to helm the party affairs and deploying a 53-year-old on a 3,500 km long foot march.
As the yatra comes to a close, in the party’s internal assessment, the march has been able to achieve its objective of setting a counter narrative of social cohesion against the alleged divisive politics of the BJP.
