(Image source from: Rahul Gandis coterie Time for a reality check})
Congress leaders have finally started raising questions on Rahul Gandhi's coterie for the poll debacle in this general election. The reaction came from none other than former MP Milind Deora, who is also among Rahul Gandhi’s youth brigade.
Even earlier there had been some remarks against Rahul Gandhi’s team of advisers. But, none of the prominent members of the party had spoken out openly against the Congress vice-president’s coterie. Milind Deora's honest and hard hitting comment comes two days after Sonia and Rahul Gandhi offered to resign from the CWC on May 19, which of course was not accepted.
So who are these advisors of Rahul Gandhi who are being blamed by Congress leaders for the poll debacle. They are Rahul Gandhi's key advisors, the group which ran the Congress war room. Rahul Gandhi's coterie includes Kanishka Singh, Mohan Gopal, Madhusudan Mistry, Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken (media in-charge). Most Congress leaders refrain from naming them as they are afraid of the reaction of the party high command.
Deora is one of the prominent faces from the youth brigades of Congress, and it is significant that he has questioned Rahul’s group of advisers. Milind himself shares a good rapport with the Gandhi scion Rahul.
Milind’s outburst came through his twitter post: “Field party work & electoral battles are key to comprehend ground realities. This should form the basis for leadership posts in Congress.” Another twitter post rationalised his first tweet by saying: "My comments are out of emotions of deep loyalty to the party, pain of our performance & a sincere desire to see us bounce back. Nothing more".
And Deora was not alone questioning non political appointees. Even senior Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi seemed to be in agreement with Milind Deora’s opinion. A day earlier Deora had criticised Rahul Gandhi's advisers saying that they were not in tune with the people as they did not have their "ears to the ground" and with "no electoral experience" the coterie was "calling the shots".
Even Priya Dutt, his colleague and former MP from Mumbai, holds similar views on the disconnect between the people and the party.
According to Deora, the poll debacle was the result of a coterie within the Congress, which was into armchair politics within the party. He reportedly said that these group of men held responsibility of important departments and key positions in the party. This small group never listened to the party cadres and what the MPs had to say, Deora added. What he meant was that this coterie was very powerful and even people like him could not bypass it to get their voice heard.
Before Milind other leaders had also raised the issue but were not paid heed to. Much before the poll campaign started, a few leaders had voiced their concern that the high command was not taking feedback that were not in line with key advisers. Senior leader Jagdambika Pal left the party and joined the BJP just a few days before the election campaign started. Pal said that Rahul Gandhi is to be blamed along with his team. His logical question was how can the party leadership not meet the party MPs, how else would they get feedback on the ground realities. Today, he is a back in Parliament as BJP's MP, while most of his former colleagues have not.
While Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party have cracked their whip and dissolved the party units in the state. No such action was seen in the CWC meetings after the massive rout of the party. Instead of taking firm decisions, the CWC indulged in an emotional get-together.
The Congress party remains in a state of limbo, the CWC (it seems) is waiting for Sonia Gandhi to wave a magic wand again and decide for them. This delay will harm the party’s image as people will see them as not learning the lessons of “connecting” with people, and its supporters are getting a distress signal.
(Picture Source: dnaindia.com)
(AW: Pratima Tigga)
