Gujarat Election: Rahul Gandhi’s emergence as a leader and the opposition is the sweep take
As the trends tend to favour the Bhartiya Janata Party retaining the power seat for another 5-years in the heart of Gujarat, the Congress is also giving a head-to-head competition against the BJP.
Congress, which has dwindled to 46 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha Election, the lowest of the number since its
emergence in the Indian politics, and the defeat in every state election has left the party in droopiness and in the state of apathy, not only in the party, but among the party workers on the ground.
Since the Lok Sabha Election of 2014, the Congress has 10 state governments, and won only two. During this period, two former Chief Ministers, five UPA ministers, four former PCC presidents, several former state ministers and many senior leaders have left the party. This frustration and holding the party members from drifting away to the hands of the mighty was the challenging task for the Congress to overcome.
However, the Gujarat Election has spelt a new life in the Congress Party. Giving the direct fight on the home turf of the BJP, Congress had managed to do some real damage, but fail to fortify the BJP’s bastion
Though, Rahul Gandhi led Congress may not have tasted the victory of Gujarat soil, but the party is in the respectable position to oppose the government in the power seat. The Gujarat election result acted as an elixir for the opposition which was reduced to none at the national as well as the state level, where the one-sided victory of the BJP and no opposition and no accountability was the direct threat on the very fabric of the democracy.
PM Modi’s political approach of TINA (There Is No Alternative) was working until now. But the Gujarat Elections of 2017 has burst the bubble, and Rahul Gandhi’s emergence while addressing the rallies in Gujarat, and the seats the party grabbed, indicates the rise of the opposition has really begun.
At the centre, where the Congress hasn’t manage to touch even the magical number to be in the opposition, Gujarat election is now can be seen as the election where the rise of the opposition is seen.
By: Ananya Pandit