New Delhi: Amid a serious debate about the future of the Gandhis and the Congress, interim party chief Sonia Gandhi, who had to skip Assembly election campaigning due to health reasons, is once again actively engaged in party affairs with key members claiming she is in "complete command".
Congress is trying hard to stay afloat and find some common ground with the G23, the dissident group within the party, who were riled up after the recent poll debacle. While Sonia Gandhi remained in the background when both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the poll campaign in the five states, the interim chief is now attempting to regain control and fix things by putting herself in the driver's seat.
After the polls, when a group of dissenters started expressing concern over the party’s future, Gandhi hurriedly convened a Congress Working Committee meeting to review the results and in follow-up action, removed chiefs of the five state units. “Soniaji did not campaign during the recent polls on the advice of the doctors but she is fully in command when it comes to party matters. She revived the party earlier and we are confident that she will do so again,” senior leader and Congress Working Committee member Tariq Anwar told ETV Bharat.
Sonia Gandhi became active in the second half of Parliament’s budget session, demanding restarting of mid-day meals in schools, a hike in the allocation for rural job scheme MGNREGA and timely payment of wages under the scheme. Both the welfare plans had been started by the previous government headed by Manmohan Singh when Gandhi supervised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
The fact that Sonia Gandhi, and not any other MP, including Rahul Gandhi, took up the issue of mid-day meals and MGNREGA in the Lok Sabha, indicated that the party’s interim chief was associating herself with the issues as she asked the incumbent government to resolve problems in their implementation. Earlier, she had also expressed concern over the alleged misuse of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and asked the government not to let foreign companies interfere in India’s democracy.
Lok Sabha member and Telangana AICC in-charge, Manickam Tagore, said that Sonia Gandhi was always in charge even when she was asked to be the interim chief. "Right from the time she was asked to be the interim chief in 2019, Soniaji has been in charge of party matters. During the Covid years, she was advised by doctors to remain indoors which saw her holding virtual interactions with party leaders. Now she steps out and attends Parliament and other engagements," Tagore said.
Having realized that there may be coordination issues with the other like-minded parties both inside and outside the Parliament in jointly taking on the BJP, Sonia has been in touch with them as well. In order to send a message that the DMK-Congress ruling alliance in Tamil Nadu was going strong, she inaugurated the regional party’s Delhi office along with chief minister MK Stalin on Saturday.
Later, Sonia Gandhi chaired an informal meeting of the leaders from the Congress and DMK, which was also attended by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rajya Sabha member and his uncle Ram Gopal Yadav.
Also read: Sonia voices concern over MGNREGA budget cut, Centre hits back
