Rahul Gandhi emerges out of Sonia Gandhi’s shadow

Has the Rahul era begun in the Congress, for a good measure? Yes is the answer if you ask the Congressmen who converge in the capital now-a-days. It has for long been touted that Rahul Gandhi would take over from Sonia Gandhi the responsibilities of the party completely.

However, the process of his acceptance by the seniors of the Congress has been hanging fire for quite some time. Rahul's ability to take along with him the rank and file of the party has always been in question.

To the non-Congress and non-BJP parties, Rahul still has to prove his credentials as a leader with an open mind and as someone who is easy to get along with. Sonia Gandhi had the capacity to convince the Opposition parties and had a good equation with several of them. She could easily walk up to the stalwarts of the parties and have a one-on-one with them.

Only the other day Rahul began conducting himself on his own with the demonetisation issue dominating in the Lok Sabha and "made a good beginning" on his debut in uniting several Opposition parties. However, the bonhomie was short lived and his party stood almost isolated except for the presence of the TMC, JD (U) and DMK.

But, the 'Jan Vedan Sammelan" held at Delhi at the sprawling Talkatora Stadium two days ago to take on Modi saw Rahul Gandhi in full flow of power. The meeting was attended by the likes of Dr Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Motilal Vora, Digvijay Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Narayana Swamy and several other senior functionaries apart from almost all PCC presidents and office bearers.

The only notable absentee was Sonia Gandhi. In fact, due to her health concerns, Sonia has not been visible to the people much in these days and the coordination is reportedly left to Rahul and seniors on all important issues.

The Talkatora meet made the Congress rank and file realise that it was purely a Rahul show and the no show by Sonia Gandhi meant that they would now have to look forward to his guidance here on. On Thursday, again, when the Congress leaders converged at 10 Janpath, it was obvious to everyone that the photo session with Rahul Gandhi in Sonia's domain was meant to convey who the real boss is.

It is a smooth transition of power that is on at 10 Janpath now. Sonia Gandhi is gracefully retreating into the background pushing Rahul into situations so that he quickly learns. One signal from her to her son, however, seems to be, let the seniors sail with you. This is evident from the fact that Rahul prefers to be seen in the presence of the party seniors more now-a-days.

As for rallying the Opposition around the Congress, it could come later. There is still time for it. There are UP Assembly elections first and those in Punjab. Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa don't hold much hope for the Congress. But a win in Punjab, where the surveys predict it so, could boost the morale of the party further.

Then if Modi fails to deliver on UP, it would do a lot of good to the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Congress knows that despite all her efforts, someone like Mamata Benerjee would never be acceptable as a fulcrum of the Opposition and it is only Rahul who could don the mantle soon. And Sonia could be smiling now!