Why does Congress and its allies want to avoid a Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi fight?

Rahul Gandhi has been the former National President of Congress. He has also proved his capability by taking out Bharat Jodo Yatra. From the road to the Parliament, he is constantly seen fighting a direct battle against the government or rather Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But despite this, neither his own party nor his alliance partners want the 2024 fight to become a Modi vs Rahul fight. It can be said that the leader of every political party involved in the alliance with the Congress is considering himself as a contender for the post of Prime Minister, so they do not want Rahul Gandhi to be seen leading them, but going deep into it, its real The reason also emerges and comes to the fore.

By the way, the parliamentary system of governance has been chosen in India, in which the people elect MPs through their votes and the MPs elected by the people choose the Prime Minister of the country on the basis of majority. To say that in this system, the people of India do not directly elect the Prime Minister, but since independence, the practical political situation has been completely contrary to this principle. For several decades after independence, the charismatic personality of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has been the reason why the Congress has been winning elections and in those days it was even said that getting a Congress ticket for the Lok Sabha elections was a guarantee of becoming an MP. That is to say, in a sense, in those days the MPs did not elect their Prime Minister together, rather the Prime Minister used to decide who would become the MP from his party.

After Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Prime Minister for some time but after him Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of the country. Indira Gandhi, first with the help of her father Nehru’s legacy and later with her popularity, created such an aura around her that K. Veteran leaders like Kamaraj also failed. After this, Indira Gandhi was the supreme leader of her party and government for as long as she lived (except for the short tenures of Morarji Desai and Charan Singh). In unfortunate circumstances, he was killed by his own bodyguards during the period of Sikh militancy. Due to his legacy, Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of the country and riding on the wave of sympathy generated by his assassination, he became the Prime Minister of the country with a historic majority by winning more than 400 seats. However, despite the popularity and popularity of the decision making a huge impact on the country’s history, the stain of Bofors has faded within a few years. Rajiv Gandhi was defeated in the 1989 elections and was assassinated while campaigning for the 1991 Lok Sabha elections. After this, Narasimha Rao ran a minority government for five years. HD Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral were prime ministers for brief periods with the support of the Congress. But after Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister in 1998 as the leader of the NDA coalition, the era of Nehru and Indira was partially returning. After the government fell by one vote, the 1999 Lok Sabha elections were made by the BJP a contest of Atal Bihari Vajpayee versus Who, and despite leading the coalition, Atal Bihari Vajpayee prevailed in the fight. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the UPA government was formed on the basis of the number of allies, defeating the BJP by just a few seats, and Sonia Gandhi found a unique way to retain her hold on power by making Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister. Congress strategists may deny this, but the 2009 Lok Sabha elections became a Manmohan vs. Advani contest due to LK Advani’s aggressive election campaign and Manmohan Singh prevailed over LK Advani in this fight.

With the results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Modi era began in the country like the Nehru and Indira eras. By the way, after 1984 Lok Sabha elections, 30 years later, the people gave a chance to a party to form the government with absolute majority, but if seen in another sense, for the first time after 1980, in 2014, a leader formed the government with absolute majority only on his own strength. Had found In 2019, on one hand, where the BJP won the biggest victory in its history, Congress’s tallest leader Rahul Gandhi had to face defeat from his family Lok Sabha seat, Amethi.

Since then Congress has been trying to avoid the election narrative of Modi vs Rahul. While the BJP seems to be trying to take every election on this pattern considering the narrative of Modi vs Rahul election battle as beneficial for itself.

Actually, despite being in power for 9 years in the central government, all the surveys show that there has been no decrease in the popularity of Narendra Modi. At the local level, people may be angry with their MP, they may also be worried about inflation, but whenever it comes to the post of Prime Minister, their first choice is Narendra Modi and perhaps this is the reason why Congress strategists do not want this. Like the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 also seem to be turning into a battle of Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi, so the Congress seems to be focusing more on issues rather than leadership, but under a special strategy, the BJP is trying to win every time through its leadership i.e. the Prime Minister. It seems to be trying to turn the election battle into a battle of leadership by putting forward Narendra Modi because it is well aware that Modi will have the upper hand in the election battle of Modi vs Rahul. However, this fact is not only realized by the BJP, but the Congress high command also understands this truth very well and the political parties standing with the Congress in the All India Alliance also understand it very well. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee has said this openly and other allies also keep accepting it in gestures and gestures.

Santosh Pathak

(The author is a senior journalist and columnist.)