Rahul departs, it’s over to state Congress

The Gandhi scion has been doing the unexpected, it is time party leaders try to understand what he expects of them

I had said here on September 12 that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra would surely push the sceptical reformist in the Congress to believe, albeit unwillingly, that it is only Gandhis who could be the party’s magnet when one of them decides to criss-cross the country. As it completed its 75 days during the Maharashtra leg and headed towards Madhya Pradesh, the Yatra has infused a new blood in the Maharashtra Congress organisation, so much so that it has refused to be taken for granted, as was being done in the past three years in Maharashtra. The crowds Rahul Gandhi attracted during the yatra and rallies in Nanded and Shegaon were beyond the state leaders’ expectations, thus making them believe that the people have not disowned the Gandhi dynasty. Hindutva was writ large in Rahul’s speeches, so was anti-BJP government tirade. The yatra has made the Congress share bullish in the coalition politics of Maharashtra.

It is not only the people within the Congress who have been boosted. Rahul critics, political (non-BJP) and apolitical (activists, political commentators etc), who had written elegies to the ‘dying’ Congress and blamed the party’s deterioration on the former party president, have turned into his balladeers. Rahul entertained all, elite and non-elite, who were cleared to reach out to him in the high-security circle. But his grazing eyes ensured that he invited those who didn’t have a party pass, a sacrosanct document, so that the fringe elements could walk with him, interact with him, kiss and hug him. It all happened even as the generation next of the Congress leaders competed with each other to boast about how long Rahul walked them hand-in-hand. It was a good political exercise executed by Rahul who was accused of remaining incommunicado and unavailable by the party leaders. Halfway through the yatra, thousands of one-on-one meetings have happened and been photographed. In normal course, a lifetime would be short to meet the number of people Rahul has met so far (and will be meeting till Srinagar) and created memories with. Leaders, their sons, daughters as well as mentor-less young workers had a picture with Rahul that will bolster their image in the poll campaign or otherwise. We have not counted indoor meetings with civil activists, think tanks and special invitees. I’m told the Rahul Brigade has been preparing for the next phase of yatra—between the east and west of the country, to be held next year.

The Maharashtra leg would be remembered for the Savarkar row that ruffled feathers in the MVA coalition and the BJP-Shinde Sena camps. Rahul raked it up after the senior leaders of the Thackeray Sena and Nationalist Congress Party joined him in the walkathon. Savarkar has been his favourite target, a soft one as compared to the individuals from the ruling party he hits out at intermittently. The NCP remained neutral to his Savarkar jibe, but the Thackeray Sena disagreed and even cautioned that such things might create a rift in the MVA. Rahul countered it saying it was his thought and he would not drop it. Later, he rested the matter and avoided reiterating it in Shegaon, where senior Sena leaders were conspicuous by their absence despite getting invitation from the Congress. On the other hand, the rival faction Shinde Sena joined the BJP in the streets to demand a stop to the yatra and seek Rahul’s arrest. Nothing had happened till this piece went to print. Perhaps, because the government knows the repercussions of stopping such yatras.

Following the yatra, some Congress leaders in the state have lost physical weight, but gained political weight in the eyes of the party high command. Former state president and legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat is one of them. We’re told Rahul and his core group was all praise for him. State president Nana Patole is another who played a good captain. Ashok Chavan buried the rumours of him shifting loyalty to the BJP. Moneybags in the party did not disappoint thousands of unsung party workers and frontal organisation members, who toiled hard to gain the appreciation of the Rahul and core team that plans and minutely supervises every detail of the yatra. Henceforth, it is up to the state leaders to continue the spell that they attribute to Rahul’s ‘tapascharya’. Their leader has been doing what was unexpected of him. It is time they understood what Rahul expects of them.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
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