New Delhi: Fearing its worst ever electoral debacle, the incumbent ruling Congress party is ready with the plan to deflect fire from Rahul Gandhi, who headed the party’s campaign in the just concluded general elections.
Officially the party still reiterates that it is confident of forming the government for the third consecutive term after results are declared on
Friday while rejecting exit poll results which have predicted doom for the party. However, privately party leaders have started bracing for the looming reality that it is going to suffer a massive defeat in line with its poor performance in December state assembly polls in five states.
The strategy is to insulate its vice-president Rahul Gandhi from any criticism and blame the party government, which has been mired a series of corruption charges, for the debacle.
The second line of defence is to save Rahul, son of party chief Sonia Gandhi, on the name of collective responsibility.
“Rahul is not in the government. He is Congress [party] vice-president, number two after Sonia Gandhi. The result will be a collective responsibility of all the leaders,” party spokesperson Shekeel Ahmed said.
Senior minister Kamal Nath also reiterated almost the same lines yesterday saying, “Results will be based on the government’s performance and Rahul Gandhi is not a part of the government.”
Many suspect that in their bid to save scion of the elite Gandhi-Nehru family, the party may make the outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh the fall guy. Singh had announced in January this year that he would not be in contention for a third term. The party ducked the popular demand to name Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate though there never was any doubt that in the event of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance emerging winners Rahul, 43, would be its choice to become the next prime minister.
The arch-rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is poised to dethrone the Congress party from power took a jibe at the pre-emptive move to save Rahul Gandhi. “The mantra in the Congress party is to blame others in case of something goes bad while giving all the credit to the Congress president and vice-president. Therefore, the prime minister and others will be blamed,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
