New Delhi: A new book on Rahul Gandhi makes
a comparison between him and his cousin who, it feels, is
"practically isolated" in his party BJP.
"To a large extent, it boils down to the choices which
Rahul and Varun and their fathers or mothers have made. While
Rajiv enjoyed the goodwill of the people, Sanjay was almost
hated for his policies," the book titled 'Rahul' by
journalists Jatin Gandhi and Veenu Sandhu says.
"While Rahul makes an extra effort to be seen as secular,
Varun has done just the opposite. While the Congress would
like nothing better than to see Rahul as Prime Minister of
India, the BJP remains distrustful of Varun because he is, at
the end of the day, a Gandhi," it says.
The book notes that BJP leaders have often pulled up
Varun for his deviation from party line. "In Rahul's case, any
variance becomes the new party line," it adds.
While one is "openly celebrated" by the party as its next
Prime Ministerial candidate, the book says, "the other (Varun)
often stands practically isolated within his party".
On Rahul's 'Mission 2012', the book says that he hoped to
"re-jig" Mayawati's social engineering formula to regain his
party's winning combination in UP though Congress winning 21
seats in 2009 general elections from UP made the BSP chief to
focus on wooing Dalits and Muslims even at the cost of losing
Brahmin votes.
After launching the party's efforts to regain hold in UP,
the book says the Congress, just like the BSP, hoped to select
candidates for the 2012 Assembly elections in 2011.
However, it says, "after the Congress suffered heavy
losses in Bihar (Assembly polls), the party cadres which had
been working on the grand plan to wrest UP from Mayawati
seemed to lose direction."
The book notes that Bihar Assembly results in 2010 showed
that Rahul's formula of doing away with alliances had
boomeranged on the party.
The book also points out that his performance in
Parliament in the current Lok Sabha is dismal as he spoke only
once since May 2009.
"From May 2009 till the Monsoon session of 2011, Rahul
had not asked a single question...MPs from other parties had,
on an average, asked 119 questions in the two years of 15th
Lok Sabha...He had performed better as a first time MP in the
UPA-I but only in comparison to himself," it says.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 10:27