Clearly, Rahul Gandhi has shown himself unable to pick the right people, and unable to pick the right issues, opines Mihir S Sharma
This fact is undeniable: Rahul Gandhi spent years on the Uttar Pradesh elections, and achieved nothing. Yes, the Congress won six more seats than it did in 2007, and a few additional percentage points in vote share — still barely more than a tenth of the votes cast. It was an abysmal fourth, almost 20 seats behind a lacklustre Bharatiya Janata Party, itself a poor third. Calling this anything but a humiliating disaster is ridiculous.
This week it was clear the Congress intends to learn absolutely nothing from that abject failure. Shortly after the elections, Gandhi did emerge from 10 Janpath to take responsibility; but he has been silent since. And nobody else seems to think that the main architect of the Congress’ effort should be held accountable at all.
Immediately after the results, the Congress’ state head, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, resigned — a resignation accompanied by a panicked insistence that it wasn’t Gandhi’s fault, it was hers, all hers.
Now, we have the results of stocktaking by a committee led by A K Antony. Last Wednesday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi made a combative speech that focused on Antony’s accusation of “indiscipline”.