Mrs Sonia Gandhi, set to be re-elected as Congress chief for a record fourth term, is the architect of the Congress-led coalition government at the Centre. Her great movements has not only brought the Congress back to power after eight years wilderness through a coalition route at the Centre but defeated the BJP-led NDA twice since 2004 Lok Sabha elections disproved the “anti incumbency” factor in the power game.
Her move to join the coalition politics at the Centre which she had initiated in the Congress’ Shimla brain storming session held in 2003, has not only changed the party’s mind set but checkmated the BJP and the regional parties who had defeated the Congress in 1996,1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections.
She became the party president at a time when the rank and file got completely demoralised after the party’s successive defeats due to the desertion by its Muslim and backward castes constituencies. It had helped regional parties in the Hindi heartland. While Muslims, SCs and STs switched over to the Samajwadi Party, the RJD and the BSP — the upper castes and a section of OBCs moved closer to the BJP because of its social engineering.
All these parties have ousted the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for over two decades and now emerged stronger in Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,Rajasthan and Gujarat, Mrs Gandhi,who was under attack on her “foreign origin” not only by the BJP and other parties but including some of the heavy weight leaders like Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr P.A. Sangma and Mr Tariq Anwar who later formed the NCP. Others in the Congress had backed them but later changed their positions.
Mrs Gandhi had not only approached them for a United front against the NDA but won the LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, tried to be soft on the BSP chief Maywati and even backed Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav to form a government in UP. On the other hand, she had virtually declared the Left as an ally outside West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
Her political management and flexibility (declaring she is not in the PM’s race at a Shivaji Park rally and later in a press conference in Mumbaibrought back the Congress in power at the Centre in 2004.
Significantly ,the middle class which got benefited by the economic reforms initiated in 1991by the Congress government and neo rich, had voted successively for the BJP-led NDA.
It will be interesting to see whether she will continue with the coalition politics in her third term as the Congress chief or would set the objective of coming to power on its own at the Centre.
The Congress is not depending much on regional friends after the BJP’s defeat. It has decided to fight the Bihar and UP Assembly polls on its own knowing well that it has not been a major player there.
Interestingly, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Congress president for a record six times in 1929,1936,1937,1951,1953 and 1954 but that time the tenure of the party chief was one or two years. Mrs Gandhi is thus the longest serving party chief without a break.
Others in the Gandhi Family who led this Grand Old Party which had played a historic role in the pre and post Independence of India .were Pandit Motilal Nehru (1919 and 1929) ,Indira Gandhi (1978,1983) and Rajiv Gandhi (1985).