Around the time Rahul Gandhi was locked in a face-off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad as he campaigns for the assembly elections in Gujarat, an announcement at the Congress headquarters in Delhi turned him from party vice president to the president-elect.
"...I hereby declare Shri Rahul Gandhi elected as president of the Indian National Congress," announced Mullappally Ramachandran, chairman of the Congress' Central Election Authority.
The 47-year-old Rahul was elected unopposed, and will be handed over the certificate of his election as Congress president at a grand function at the party headquarters on December 16.
A large number of Congress workers descended upon the party headquarters, where they raised slogans in praise of Rahul, and burst customary crackers. Banners lined the road leading to the Congress office, congratulating him on his election as party president.
While celebrations have begun, it will be an uphill task for Rahul to revive the grand old party, which is at its lowest ebb at present. The immediate challenge for him is the Gujarat Assembly elections. His election as Congress President comes amidst a bitterly fought electoral contest in Gujarat, where he is leading a spirited campaign for his party. The state is crucial since it is Modi's home turf, and getting the better of him in his own backyard would come as a big morale booster for the Congress ahead of the coming round of assembly elections, and more importantly, the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 2019. As Rahul leads the Congress campaign, Modi and his right-hand man, BJP president Amit Shah, are also leaving no stone unturned to neutralise the Congress' challenge.
Rahul would want to start his presidentship of the Congress on a winning note, with a triumph in Gujarat. A win or even a major dent in the BJP's tally would bolster his stature as a national leader. It would come as a morale booster for the party as it would be locked in a direct fight with the BJP in elections to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Rajasthan in 2018. It would also help him get allies in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Reviving Congress in huge swathes of territory where it held sway earlier, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, will be a major challenge for him.
Rahul is expected to bring in changes in the Congress organisation and put in place a new team that reflects his ideas and his way of functioning. However, sources close to him insist that there will no major overhaul, and that he would endeavour to balance experience with the enthusiasm of the youth. He would be expected to take steps to fulfil his commitment to bringing in inner party democracy in the Congress.
Rahul's ascension is also a generational change, and he would take over from his mother Sonia Gandhi, who has been Congress president for almost 20 years. The fifth generation from the Nehru-Gandhi family to head the Congress, he has big shoes to fill. Sonia too has a formidable political legacy, as under her, the Congress was in power at the Centre for ten years.
