WEEKEND ANALYSIS Gandhi dynasty charishmatic member, politically talented, Priyanka Gandhi, who resembles Indira Gandhi, will save Congress Party in this drastic situation. Her party men refer to her as their Brahmastra, "the ultimate weapon". At 41, the mother of two teenaged school going children Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is easily the most charming member of the Gandhi family. She is young, charismatic and politically astute. All things that Rahul Gandhi should have been.
A Brahmastra, in her own words, "can only be used once", but most Congress leaders and workers alike believe that if ever there was need to deploy the weapon, now would be the time. Beleaguered by corruption scandals, inefficiency and reeling under the impact of one electoral defeat after another, the Congress party faces an existentialist crisis like never before.
"It's no ordinary election. This is a battle for our survival. We can't adopt the attitude of we will live to fight another day. If we get the drubbing that is being predicted, that time may not come," says a veteran CWC member.
Priyanka Gandhi's presence earlier in the week at a meeting, in which senior functionaries of the Congress party like Ahamad Patel, Janardhan Dwivedi and Madhusudhan Mistry were present, has once again set in motion the favourite political guessing game of 'will she won't she'. She is widely regarded as the family's most charming Gandhi, but has been careful in avoiding taking on any formal political role.
There is little to indicate that Priyanka Gandhi is going to formally take the plunge into active politics. There is also no denying the fact that she is a lot more involved in helping her brother as he gears up to lead the Congress party in 2014 polls.
Priyanka has had a major say every time her mother or her brother has had to make a significant decision. She always has been by the side of her mother and brother on almost all the important occasions. Whether it was in the immediate aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination or at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting in the Central hall of Parliament in 2004, where Sonia Gandhi announced her decision to turn down the offer to be prime minister, or Rahul Gandhi's acceptance speech at AICC session in Jaipur in January 2013.
A family insider recalls Priyanka holding her mother's hand to sooth her nerves while driving with her to the AICC session at Siri Fort on March 8, 1998 for Sonia Gandhi's first address to the Congress party after taking over as the President of the party.
The Congress has lost 12 of the 16 assembly elections in the last two years. If pollsters are correct, it is headed for a drubbing in the general elections scheduled this year. No wonder then that dispirited Congress workers are increasingly looking to Priyanka to turn around their political fortunes.
She had single-handedly turned around her mother's elections from Bellary ensuring that Sonia defeated Sushma Swaraj. She was also instrumental in putting an end to Arun Nehru's attempts to seek re-election from the family bastion of Rae Barelli on a BJP ticket. As far as the Congress workers are concerned, they believe she can provide the cutting edge and re-work her magic at the national stage.
However, a more sober assessment points to the fact that despite her campaigning, the Congress won only three of the 12 assembly seats in Amethi and Rae Barelli during the last UP assembly elections. "While she may energise the committed Congress worker, given the strong anti-Congress sentiment in the country, the timing is all wrong," says political analyst Swapan Dasgupta.
"Some people are born with leadership qualities. She is one of them," says a Congress leader, who has been with the party since the time of Indira Gandhi. "I was amongst the first to reach 10 Janpath on the evening when Rajivji was assassinated. Soniaji was extremely distraught. Priyanka was very young, but she displayed remarkable courage. She was the one who was overseeing arrangements both at 10 Janpath and also to bring back his body from Sriperumbudur. She rang up the President and the Prime Minister to expedite the process," says a family aide on the condition of anonymity.
Ironically, at a time when the Congress is getting ready to declare Rahul Gandhi's name as its prime ministerial candidate, there are many people in the party, who view Priyanka to be the saviour. Many old timers, even the ones who are now estranged from the party and the Gandhi family like Natwar Singh, cannot help but praise her. He has worked with four generations of the Gandhis and has seen both Rahul and Priyanka grow up. "She has a very political temperament. She has grandmother's political instincts and her father's compassion and goodness," says Singh.
The contrast with her brother Rahul and the man most likely to be declared the Congress party's prime ministerial candidate cannot be starker. He is hard working, intense, ponderous, obstinate, and ill at ease in delivering speeches. She, on the other hand, has presence and charisma, is extremely charming, fluent in Hindi and has the remarkable ability to connect with the people and with Congressmen cutting across generations, something that Rahul is certainly ill at ease with.
She is also quick witted often flooring opponents with her responses. At the height of the BJP's "foreigner" campaign against her mother, Priyanka left her opponents and questioner totally nonplussed by her response to a question how she felt being referred to as the daughter of a foreigner: "Aap ko lagta hai meri rago me koi videshi khoon daud raha hai". Similarly, she also forced the voluble Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to put an end to his taunting of the Congress party as a boodhi budhiya by retorting "mai aapko boodhi dikhte hoon".
In the midst of the frenzy around Priyanka, she has chosen to keep quiet, not choosing to add to what she said a couple of years back. "I will do anything to help my brother...whatever is required of me. I will do whatever he requires me to do. He knows to what extent he can require me". Those in the know claim that she was the prime mover behind the decision to bring Rahul into politics and is committed to doing everything she possibly can to ensure that he is a success.
"Whatever she does, whether it is by joining politics or from the outside, it will be to aid and supplement the efforts of the brother. Politics and the lure for power do strange things to people, but she will never ever do anything that will even remotely undermine her brother," says a CWC member.
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