Mama's back: With Sonia Gandhi back in the driver's seat, Rahul coronation may be on hold

For nearly two years, Sonia Gandhi seemed content to have taken a back seat and let the focus shift to son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi. Suffering from an undisclosed ailment in the run up to the national elections in 2014, she largely stayed on the sidelines and watched as the party first tumbled to its worst ever defeat and then proceeded to lose in every state that it held power. The shocking wipeout, however, did little to jolt the Congress president from her semi-retirement, even as Congress leaders began to revolt at Rahul’s leadership in the bloody aftermath. Having led her party to two successive victories in the past, the grand matriarch of the grand old party seemed intent on staying out of the fray until her son suddenly decided to take a ‘sabbatical’ on the eve of a growing political battle over the land acquisition bill. At  the time, there were rumours that Rahul’s sudden departure was a result of a mother-son fight over the party’s leadership, with Rahul insisting that the old guard, mainly made up of Sonia loyalists, make way for his new cadre of leaders. True or not, it is clear that something has changed in 10 Janpath Road. Over the past 7 days, she’s jumped into a flurry of very public activity. [caption id=“attachment_2160243” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sonia Gandhi leading the rally on Tuesday. Naresh Sharma/ Firstpost[/caption] She first led a ‘solidarity march’ of all the party’s MPs to the residence of Manmohan Singh, a rare display of unity in the party, after he was issued a summons in a coal block allocation case. Then in Parliament on Wednesday, where she’s not known to participate in many debates, Gandhi stood up to ask why the government hadn’t fulfilled commitments related to the people of Telangana. “…it is disappointing to find that the government has not shown any interest in fulfilling these commitments. This is even more preplexing given that the BJP and the TDP are in coalition at the Centre and the state,” the Congress chief said. Sonia also went on to attack the 14th Finance Commission’s report saying that the Centre hadn’t done anything substantial to fund the new capital for Andhra Pradesh and said she had written to the Prime Minister about it. After that,  the Congress president was again on the streets as she marched with Congress leaders, and former UPA allies among others, to the President’s house, where she attacked the government not just for the Land Bill but also over it lacking secular character. “All progressive, secular, democratic and forward looking forces are determined to defeat Modi government design to promote divisions and social disharmony,” she said. The timing of the statement is crucial given it comes even as the government is under fire for the gangrape of a nun in West Bengal and a church was attacked in Haryana. The Congress president has in the past week shown why the party didn’t err in making her president in 1999. The credit for everything the Congress has done regarding the Land Bill, the court summons to former PM Manmohan Singh and uniting the opposition to take on the government may still be given to Rahul by his supporters, but there’s no doubt who’s the face of the opposition’s campaign against the Modi government. As _Firstpost_'s Sanjay Singh points out , Sonia hitting the streets was a much needed boost for the Congress, offering much-needed reprieve from its ill-thought aggression over the non-issue of ‘snooping’ on Rahul. Sonia was leading not just her party but a united opposition which seemed eager to rally to her side. As a leader of the opposition Gandhi has shown she knows how to use her resources wisely. The Congress had a largely lacklustre tenure as the chief opposition party in 1999 when she was in charge, with only a handful of major issues over which it could target the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. But the Congress president, who was even reportedly mocked by sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi in Parliament, was quick to realise her shortcomings and was wise enough to delegate Parliamentary debate to Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Shiv Shankar and Jaipal Reddy. Presently, as well, the Congress is pulling out its senior leaders out of the woodwork and forcing them to walk the extra mile. Mallikarjun Kharge makes sure the voice of the party is heard in the Lok Sabha where it has barely any presence; while the party has been effective in bulldozing the Modi government in Rajya Sabha, where it enjoys a majority. Jairam Ramesh is leading an anti-land bill march while protest rallies in Delhi have been led by senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jyotiraditya Scindia at them. Unlike 1999 where the Congress had 114 seats in the Lok Sabha, the Congress has only 46 seats this time round. But with the BJP putting pretty much every other party on the edge with its ’take no prisoners’ attitude,  Sonia appears to be emerging as a leader who can rally them together. Regional parties like the TMC, DMK, NCP, IUML, CPI, CPM, JD(S) and SP may not formally ally with the Congress, but are more than happy to piggyback on the Congress’s initiative – but it seems only as long as Sonia is leading the charge.  There was no such enthusiasm on display for Rahul either within his ranks or among other parties. Given Sonia is back in charge again,  it comes as little surprise that the Congress is reportedly planning to postpone its all important meeting in April, when Rahul was to be anointed its president. The problem for Rahul now may be that by the time he returns from his introspection, he risks becoming even more irrelevant that he was before he went on leave. The last thing the party’s leaders would want is to dilute its offensive against the Modi government by handing the reins to Rahul.  For more than a decade, the Congress party  and Sonia were waiting for Rahul – to make up his mind, to take charge, to take on responsibility. Rahul hasn’t done any of the same, but no one seems to be waiting any more, including his mother.