Indian
National Congress General Secretary and spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi today rejected
the wisdom of Digvijay Singh who, some days ago, had said that the concept of
two power centers had failed. While doing so, he pushed some more fodder to the
debate over the Congress party’s prime-ministerial candidate in the upcoming
general elections.
The
question on ‘who will be projected as the prime-ministerial face of the
Congress party for the upcoming Lok Sabha election’ has different possibilities
and the final choice would depend on how the Congress party members and its
strategists are looking at the possible outcome of the next general elections.
If both
think that the UPA is going to manage victory in the next general elections, Manmohan
Singh can be effectively ruled out.
But if
the Congress party managers think that it is not possible to come back to the office
in the next general elections (an assumption nearer to the reality), they would
prefer to continue hailing the Sonia-Manmohan arrangement and would, in all
likelihood, would project Manmohan as the face of the party in the polls, as
Janardan Dwivedi said today - “The relationship between the prime minister
and Sonia Gandhi is unique and their camaraderie cannot be replaced easily. We
have not seen this sort of duality in any other time and in all probability it
is the ideal model for future also.” - April 2, 2013
If the
Congress party is about the Nehru-Gandhi family and if the party members
(barring few) see their future dependent on success of Rahul Gandhi (or say Priyanka
Gandhi), taking this line is logical.
Rahul has
already had his share of big electoral setbacks in Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh where he campaigned intensively but the Congress party was
routed. Party managers have been trying hard to shield Rahul’s name away from
these defeats but a defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections would water down
everything effectively pushing Rahul’s political career back by many years.
That
might well be detrimental to the Congress party and the Nehru-Gandhi family in
an era of coalition politics and emergence of many other regional political
dynasties.
So, if
a certain defeat is clear in the mindset of the Congress party strategists, it
is better to leave it to Manmohan Singh, to bear the brunt of anti-incumbency
against his government, giving Rahul Gandhi opportunity to play safe for the
long-term political future.
And
this makes Manmohan to remain in the race. And it, if indeed, is the underlying
thinking behind making Manmohan face of the next elections, then his reply, “these
are hypothetical questions, we will cross the bridge when it comes”, on a
question asking if the Congress party could make him the prime-ministerial
candidate for the next elections, sounds more like a statement made out of
compulsion than out of self-confidence.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
