With her elegant saris and grey-streaked hair evoking her formidable mother-in-law, Sonia Gandhi can rally her party like no other Congress leader. At the recent Congress Working Committee meet, the script was pre-written. After near-annihilation in state polls, the moment Sonia Gandhi said “we three” (the Gandhis) are ready to “step back”, an immediate chorus rose: There was no question of the Gandhis resigning. It’s a refrain at least as old as 2004 when Congress lined up to plead for Sonia Gandhi to reconsider after she ‘sacrificed’ her claim to the prime ministership, harking to her “inner voice”.
In Punjab the messy change of the Congress guard bore Rahul Gandhi’s imprimatur, and in UP, Priyanka Gandhi led the party’s campaign. In both states, Congress has been pulverised but the party has vociferously rejected any accountability for Gandhi siblings. At the centre of this fatally ‘defeat proof’ mindset is the enigmatic figure of Sonia Gandhi. Invested with the aura of ‘sacrifice’, she is both goddess and nemesis of Congress.
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