New Delhi : The succession drama in the Congress party continues to get a twist every few days. More so as the number of party workers, who are unsure about their fate under the heir apparent Rahul Gandhi’s sole leadership, if and when it finally arrives, keeps growing.
Amid all indications that the top leadership role would remain unambiguously with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and there is no haste to push a once reluctant and now apparently eager Rahul to the top, a senior Congress leader has revealed that the former prime minister late Indira Gandhi had told him a few days before her assassination that she wanted her grand-daughter Priyanka to carry forward her legacy.
Senior party leader Makhan Lal Fotedar, who was a close adviser to the former Prime Minister, has made this revelation in his memoirs “Chinar Leaves” that are slated for release later this month. He has dwelt at length on the conversation he had with the late prime minister during her last visit to Kashmir and few days before her tragic assassination.
It needs to be mentioned that there is no dearth of Congress workers and leaders who believe that it is ”beyond Rahul’s capacity” to revive the party, and they also believe that ”salvation” for them lies only in Priyanka’s leadership. ‘‘She has all the qualities of her grandmother,” is the common refrain.
However, with each passing day the same lot also feels that time is running out and perhaps the stage has already reached where the party is beyond redemption and even the Priyanka magic would not work. All the same, they feel that Priyanka is any day a better bet than Rahul.
In his memoirs, Fotedar also reveals that he got a rather cold response from Sonia Gandhi when he, after Rajiv’s assassination in 1991, wrote a letter to her detailing this episode.
In true traditions of palace politics, Fotedar, who was a hot shot politico during the Indira days, has virtually lost all his clout in the Sonia era, and like others from the Congress (Tiwari) era that was ostensibly formed at her behest to ensure that the then prime minister Narasimha Rao could not side line her, has been consigned to virtual anonymity.
In keeping with the party’s studied approach on this subject, senior spokesperson Anand Sharma refused to comment on the issue. ‘‘I am not privy to what was discussed or not discussed, nor am I privy to what he has written. It is very difficult for me to make any informed comment on this. Only Fotedar Ji who is a respected senior leader can comment,” said Sharma during the course of a media interaction.
