Is Rahul Gandhi the Narendra Modi of Congress?

There is a story in Delhi's political circles of how Rahul Gandhi, just after the 2024 election result, met a newly elected young MP. The MP had sought the appointment for himself, but Gandhi's office called back to say that he must bring his family along and they had a chat over a cup of tea. 

This story will sound very familiar to many people. Because it is. This is exactly the sort of story that one is used to hearing about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, how he asks after family members, invites people to bring them along and very often has photos taken with them. The privileged ones also get a selfie. 

But do these similarities stop with a family photo-op or is there more? 

After the relative 'success' of the Congress party in the recent few elections, including the general elections, there is a low background hum about Rahul Gandhi and how he is shedding his 'Pappu' image. Even opposition leaders acknowledge that something has changed. 

Yet, there is no mistaking that Modi remains the pre-eminent political leader of the country today, despite the setback of the elections that reduced his party to a minority in Parliament. All opinion polls are unanimous about that while also showing that Gandhi's rising popularity, though the gap, is still very large.

Rahul Gandhi: Narendra Modi of Congress? 

This brings up the main point: has Rahul Gandhi reached the status of being called the "Narendra Modi of the Congress"?

Modi's biggest advantage is that he has the aura and charisma to single-handedly push up the party's vote share by as much as 10-12%. In our electoral system, that is a huge, maybe even unprecedented number. It could well be argued that his ability to reach that number might have diminished, but it is certainly not extinguished; his political deification continues among the average voter. 

With that, it also brought to Modi an almost unchallenged grip over the BJP and its functionaries and functioning. The most recent exhibition of that was the selection of the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers: both states had virtual newbies who replaced regional powerhouses. 

Rahul Gandhi has not yet reached that level of political ability. His modest success, combined with some unexpected reversals for the BJP and gains for regional parties, has revived the opposition to some extent. 

But his real impact has been, in a manner distantly similar to Modi's, within the Congress party. Apart from the fact that he is now the main campaign face for the party and its chief vote-puller, he has also re-positioned himself inside the party's pantheon. Let there be no mistake: a Gandhi will always have a seat and sway at the party's high table. 

With Mallikarjun Kharge as the party president much like J P Nadda, Gandhi is now an active presence in the scheme of things -- akin to Modi, who is always given the highest position in party functions. This is now apparent in how the party is dealing with regional satraps, some of them who have been around since the 1970s. 

In contrast, take the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The former chief minister and arguably the Congress' tallest leader, Kamal Nath, was allowed to run the campaign and ticket distribution on his own, with him refusing to take any inputs from the party's election think tank. The result was clear for all to see. A somewhat same situation was played out in Chhattisgarh as well, with the same result. Similarly, the insistence of Anand Sharma on keeping a Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha ticket for himself. He lost and Congress got zero seats.

A little earlier than that, there were non-stop stories about the bickering between Rajasthan's two top leaders, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, a state where the party lost in the assembly polls. And from Karnataka, the fight between CM Siddharamaiah and his deputy, D K Shivkumar; this was a state where the Congress won in the assembly polls. Then the political crisis in Himachal, where the established leadership was threatening to rebel against the CM. 

In the case of Madhya Pradesh, Himachal and even Rajasthan, it was very apparent that Gandhi either had little control over the goings-on or simply didn't have the political capital to exert his will. Contrast this to what Modi did in MP and Rajasthan. 

The 2024 election result bump though appears to have changed that for Gandhi. Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma, having outlived their utility and expended their political firepower, are now virtually fading into the pages of Congress'  history. The bickering between the Rajasthan leaders has also faded away. The Himachal crisis, though it was fraying at the edges for the Congress, was also handled (though it was delegated to Priyanka Gandhi). 

The latest assertion of Gandhi's new political confidence could well be Haryana. Not only is the Congress talking to the Aam Admi Party for an alliance, despite the flop show in Delhi's Lok Sabha fight, there could be a surprise in the leadership as well. In a state where the Congress is completely dominated by the Hoodas, Kumari Shelja could well be a contender for the CM's chair. Sure, she was and is always seen as close to Sonia Gandhi (recall how she was the one accompanying Sonia out of Parliament when she suddenly fell unwell), but it would be naive to expect Rahul Gandhi will have no role in the decision. 

The biggest sign of Gandhi's political confidence is the reactive way that the BJP and the government have treated some of his recent statements: quotas, the Agniveer scheme, lateral entry into the UPSC and so on. All these are reminiscent of a rising Modi in the 2010s when each of his attacks on the government not only left it floundering for a response but also found massive resonance in social media, which was then nascent and which Modi then completely dominated for a decade after 2014. Now that the social media game is on an even keel, with Gandhi getting a lot of play. 

But does all this mean that Gandhi is truly the Narendra Modi of the Congress? 

The answer to that would be a hard no. For a few simple reasons. Any comparison between the two will always bring the factor of the entitlement of one and the lack of privilege of the other. It will also bring up the matter of sheer experience in governance, administration and politics. The biggest difference between the two is the connection with people. Modi has a natural flair for making that connection and a large part of the country has responded to him, the best example of that being the "Modi ka Pariwar" slogan. Gandhi on the other hand is still trying to find his "people", with seemingly unplanned stops on highways, meeting with workers, mechanics, truck and bus drivers etc. That connection is what has given Modi a political pedestal that'll be difficult to pull out from under him (despite what happened in June) and for Rahul Gandhi to climb on to.