The All India Congress Committee has vested legitimacy in Sonia Gandhi's appointment as Congress president. With this the process set in motion less than two years ago when she was given primary membership of the party has come to its logical conclusion. Perhaps, no one else had as quick and dramatic a career advance save, her own late husband. Now nothing prevents her from discharging her responsibility as head of the Congress and its parliamentary wing.If her speech is anything to go by, a restructuring of the party and its various frontal organisations is in the offing. Small wonder that it reminded many of Rajiv Gandhi's speech in Bombay soon after coming to power in which he said that power-brokers would have no place in the party. She has targeted the careerists and carpetbaggers who have used the party and its wings to further their own selfish interests. Today if they find themselves sitting in the opposition, they have only themselves to blame. Such forthrightness will certainly stand the party ingood stead, provided there is the necessary follow up.Even after five years of Rajiv Gandhi's rule, the Congress remained an instrument in the hands of the power-brokers to subserve their own interests. Naturally there is doubt whether Sonia Gandhi will be able to show results where her husband failed.Much will depend, of course, on how she reorganises the Congress Working Committee and fills various posts in the party and its affiliates. The smooth transition, as underscored by her predecessor Sitaram Kesri moving the resolution endorsing her appointment, suggests she will have a free hand. It is now clear that her strategy is to bring back to the party fold those sections of the people who got disenchanted with the party and moved away from it. Her apology during the elections for some of the party's acts of omission and commission certainly had an impact and helped it to perform better. But it was not sufficient to help it to bounce back to power.She is aware that any strategy for the Congress tostage a comeback must depend to a large extent on the alliances it is able to strike with smaller, regional parties. The comparative success of the Congress in Maharashtra was due essentially to its tie-up with the RPI and the Samajwadi Party. The electoral outcome would have been different if it had forged a pre-poll understanding with, say, the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu or the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.However valuable its electoral partners may be, the Congress cannot overlook the need to rejuvenate itself. In many states, the party could not cash in on Sonia Gandhi's charisma because of the moribund state of the party. Unfortunately, party cadres still look to their leader to win elections for them. That is the state to which charismatic leaders have, over the years, reduced the party.This being so, Sonia Gandhi's talk of making the Congress ready to face today's challenges is easier said than done. While the Congress is within its rights to exploit the weaknesses of the BJP-led alliance,overeagerness to come to power will be a negation of the people's mandate. Let the party's stint in opposition help it to get back in touch with the people.
