Hope springs eternal. Congress supporters still think that Rahul Gandhi will one day resurrect the party and become Prime Minister. In the run up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, they point out how the heir apparent has this time committed to a grueling one month long Kisan Yatra that will cover the length and breadth of the vast state. How successful Rahul Gandhi has been this time will be decided by voters early next year.
But it is interesting to track how he has been featured and covered by mainstream media as a leader of substance since 2006. Let's start with a news report from
The Sunday Times of London in April, 2006 when Rahul was campaigning for his mother in Rae Bareilly. The reporter Dean Nelson wrote: " In an interview as he campaigned of his Italian born mother Sonia in a bye election, he explained that the assassination of his father former prime minister had propelled him into politics with a desire to carry out his work". In the same report, Nelson quotes Gandhi family loyalist Satish Sharma: " One thousand percent he will lead the Congress. Manmohan Singh is a great prime minister but after that it is Rahul. Look out there. See what is happening. It is destiny. It is beyond anyone's control. He is a free marketeer. He is pro business. With ten years in the government he will change the face of India. It is destiny".
This was followed soon after by assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2007. Here is how The Times of India covered his election campaign: " Getting on a mission to revive the party's fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday kicked off Congress' campaign for the upcoming assembly elections promising a new vision and a golden future for the state....A large crowd waited at the UP Gate to have a glimpse of Gandhi whose vehicle convoy took about three hours to traverse the 15 kilometers distance to the next meeting point". The Congress won 22 out of 404 seats in the state.
Soon after the Congress and the UPA drubbed the BJP and the NDA in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi decided that the time was ripe to revive the Congress in the 2010 Bihar assembly elections by jettisoning allies like Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. Here is how India Today covered part of his campaign in 2010: " Rahul Gandhi's recent visit to Bihar has enthused the Congressmen in the state like never before. Their body language has changed now. The Congress' remarkable turnaround in Uttar Pradesh in the last general elections under Rahul's leadership also ads it realize that similar results, if not better could be possible in Bihar. It was under a well thought out stretchy that Rahul launched his mission Bihar this month. By focusing on the youths, Rahul drove home the point that the youngsters were the pivot of his plan to make a dent into electoral fort held by regional satraps. The Congress won 4 out of 224 seats.
In 2012, for the UP assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi addressed more than 200 rallies and tried another image makeover. This is how India Today reported one of his rallies :"Suddenly, the Congress general secretary's rallies are no longer aloof. They have become participatory events where both the crowd and the candidates are drawn in; he has learnt how other politicians behave on the election trail.".Now, whether in Soraon where he talks about the lack of colleges in the area or in Sonbhadra where he holds forth on tribal land rights, Rahul makes it a point to include local flavour in his speeches. His earlier speeches seemed like recitations; now they are delivered with a lot more emotion and gesticulations, a favourite move being thumping the fist in the air to emphasise a point. The speeches end with a polite 'thank you'." This time, the Congress tally increased from 22 to 28 seats.
Hope is eternal and despite these setbacks, Rahul Gandhi was elevated as the Vice President of the Congress in January 2013 when he and his mother spoke about power being poison. Here is what
The Hindu wrote on the event: " In his first speech as the de-facto number two of the Congress, Mr. Gandhi recalled how his father was “broken” by his mother’s death — gunned down by guards with whom Rahul used to play badminton. There was enough of the Gandhi-Nehru family nostalgia to move his audience — including hard-bitten veterans sitting on stage — to tears and a standing ovation...If Mr. Gandhi moved his listeners to tears with his talk of power as a poisoned chalice and the transformative qualities of hope – even when born in despair — he also moved them to laughter as he mocked the Congress where rules are regularly given the go-by. “People often ask, how does this party run?” and then when all looks lost; it comes back with a bang.” The party’s secret weapon? “It is Gandhiji’s party, and India is in its DNA.”
The question most Indian voters would ask is: how much longer would the evolution of Rahul Gandhi last?
