Sonia Gandhi’s last hurrah for the Congress

The Indian National Congress, which won freedom for the country from British rule, has faced many crises during its long existence.Just to look at the post Independence era, Indira Gandhi’s tussle with the Syndicate in the sixties, the emergency crisis, Post Bofors deal debacle come to mind quickly in the pre-Sonia Gandhi era. But there is no doubt that Sonia Gandhi’s taking over as Congress president from Sita Ram Kesari in 1998 marks the start of a new era in the long history of the Congress party.

Sonia Gandhi has faced a plethora of problems during her tenure as the president of the Indian National Congress. She served as INC president from 1998 to 2017, making her the longest serving party chief.Inheriting a party, which lacked belief in itself, and was reduced to supporting alliances of other parties or so-called united fronts, Sonia Gandhi successfully fought against the odds to bring the Congress back to power in 2004. The party resurrection was all the sweeter as it came over a dominant BJP led by Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Congress led United Progressive Alliance, UPA, remained in power for 10 years but was done in by allegations of massive corruption by some of the alliance constituents. The Congress put in its worst performance ever in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, reduced to just forty odd seats.Since 2014, the Congress has been trying to fight its way back but it has not been a resounding success. The party has met with success in some state elections, but at the national level, the party’s performance has been nothing to write home about.

Sonia Gandhi made way for her son, Rahul Gandhi in 2017 but came back as interim Congress president last year after he quit the position following continued party debacle in the 2019 elections.With 23 eminent leaders of the Congress writing to Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 for urgent steps to revive the party, the ball is again in her court.

The question is, will Sonia Gandhi be able to revive the Congress fortunes again as she had done in 2004. The prospects do not look very bright.But you never know. Even in 2004, nobody predicted that the Vajpayee led BJP would lose the Lok Sabha elections.