Rahul Gandhi elected Congress president: Can he challenge PM Modi?

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Rahul Gandhi has been elected the Congress president today. 89 nominations were received by the party and all were found to be valid. All 89 nominations named Rahul Gandhi as candidate, according to the party. He succeeds his mother, Sonia Gandhi who led the Congress party to power against expectations in the year 2004. As Narendra Modi continues to hold sway over India and as politics has moved right of centre in its nature, can Rahul Gandhi succeed in reviving the Congress and mounting a challenge to Modi's BJP? The writer looks at the challenge that he faces in this Business Standard special.

The oldest running joke in India finally has a denouement: will Rahul Gandhi ever accept the mantle of the Congress presidentship? For his dwindling crowd of supporters, Gandhi’s reluctance was an expression of a dynast uncomfortable with his privilege; for his detractors, it merely embodied his princely refusal to accept responsibility. But now the dust finally settles and Rahul Gandhi is the new official leader of India’s oldest political party and its significant heritage.

But even a cursory perusal of the political landscape would give Rahul Gandhi pause. Narendra Modi remains popular despite policy missteps like demonetsation and the rocky roll-out of goods and services tax (GST). Though Congress appears to have recovered from its post 2014 stupor, it is currently in power in only two major states. Recent polls in Gujarat may give the Congress party some hope but the state will probably be a bridge too far. Karnataka follows in 2018 which the Congress simply cannot afford to lose. The Congress is still playing electoral defense as India approaches the end of Modi’s first term. And that has to change quickly if it is to harbor any hopes of surviving the Modi era. There are three principal challenges facing the new Congress president as he prepares for the crucial 2019 elections.

First—-and this may appear flippant—-to be taken seriously. In the last few years, Rahul Gandhi has been reduced to an epithet; the most charitable reading suggests that he is a reluctant politician forced to carry forward the family legacy. Congress sympathizers would no doubt point out that Gandhi has lately discovered his voice---he has coined some catchy slogans, and most importantly, is consistently engaged in politics.

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