Will Priyanka Gandhi be the face of Congress in 2024 elections?

The fearlessness with which Priyanka Gandhi has shouted against the government on Sunday after her brother’s MP was snatched away, a question is arising whether the Congress is going to make Priyanka Gandhi its face in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections? One of the major reasons for raising this question is that Priyanka can become a major facilitator in the unintended opportunity given to the Congress to unite the entire opposition before the elections. Anyway, not only in Congress, but many leaders of other opposition parties have also believed that Priyanka Gandhi looks more mature and stronger than Rahul Gandhi on the political field.

Of course, he has not contested any election till now, but he has got a quality from birth which we call heritage. That is, common people can see a glimpse of grandmother Indira Gandhi in her. There is no doubt that the style of his speech reminds people of his grandmother. Therefore, if the political activism of these brothers and sisters is weighed objectively on political scales, then most people will agree that Priyanka is far ahead of her brother in the art of ‘connecting’ herself with people through her words.

But the big question is that the opposition, which is currently united to save democracy on the issue of Rahul Gandhi, will it be able to agree so easily on making Priyanka Gandhi its face? This is such a question that at present no one is in a position to give a proper answer. Because there are not one but many contenders to become the candidate for the post of PM in the opposition. Therefore, being the main opposition party, if the Congress has to achieve its goal, it will have to show the courage to give up the allurement of the PM’s candidature completely.

However, the only goal of the entire opposition is also how to remove the Modi government in the next elections. But considering the popularity of PM Modi and the fear of the Sangh and BJP being very strong at the grassroots level, it is not so easy to bring this change. People may say no, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has succeeded to a great extent in creating an environment to bring change. But how can we turn a blind eye to the reality of politics that without the unity of the entire opposition, it is very difficult to give an equal fight to the BJP. Numbers game is everything in a democracy and in the current environment, if the scattered opposition dreams of touching that magic number, then it is like seeing stars in the day.

Old experiences show that there is a dire need for the opposition to adopt the old tried and tested formula of politics at this time. Two examples of this are in front of everyone – the first in 1977 and the second in 1989. In the Lok Sabha elections held after the end of the Emergency, all parties with opposite ideologies came under one banner. All the socialist leaders and the Jansangh fought the elections together and they got more success than expected in ousting the Indira Gandhi government. After that, in the 1989 elections, VP Singh, who rebelled against the Congress over the Bofors case, formed a national front by bringing other regional parties on a single platform, which got success but could not get a majority to form the government.

Despite the support of the Left Front, the majority figure could not be gathered. But at that time, the Atal-Advani BJP, taking a wise decision, announced that it would support the National Front from outside to form the government. That is, she will not join the government. Since then BJP’s aim was also to prevent the Rajiv Gandhi government from coming back to power, so it did not hesitate to compromise with parties with opposite ideologies. Even then, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 197 seats in the 531-seat Lok Sabha and the BJP, which was reduced to just two seats five years ago, had won 85 seats then. But Congress and BJP are two such sides of the political river, which are impossible to reconcile.

We cannot deny the fact that being the largest opposition party, Congress will have to take the initiative to unite the opposition, but for this it will have to assure others that Congress will not stand firm for the post of PM and its decision will be taken after the elections. Will happen only after the results. For the time being, the aim of the entire opposition should be to fight the elections together and no arrogance should be allowed to come in the way of seat distribution. The role of Priyanka Gandhi can prove to be important in this exercise, so the Congress leadership should keep Priyanka in the forefront in contacting and uniting the leaders of other parties.

The sharp tone with which Priyanka Gandhi dared to call Prime Minister Modi a ‘coward’ in her speech at Rajghat on Sunday is proof that she is aspiring to become the biggest face of the Congress, following in her grandmother’s footsteps. It is moving forward, which can prove to be a new enthusiasm among the workers.

(Note- The views given above are the personal views of the writer. It is not necessary that ABP News Group agrees with it. Only the writer is responsible for all the claims or objections related to this article.)