Dharmendra Jore: Will he be the next Phoenix of Congress?

The writing was there on the Congress wall who else but him The wall had weakened considerably but a dramatic turn of events has reinforced it beating imagination of crores of Indians Congresss new president Rahul Gandhi has promised to strengthen the wall further with his adventurous narrative The Congress ridiculed as a comatose unit following BJPs surge to the top seems to have stepped out of intensive care to become healthier this time under the command of its 47yearold captainThe new Congress presidents new narrative is full of promise it remains to be seen how he will turn it into a reality File picThe clarion callIm writing this piece in Vidarbhas capital Nagpur which once was a Congress fiefdom Then it didnt matter to people that the parent body of BJP Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS was founded here before spreading across the country to be part of some governments and then form in its own governments at the Centre and in various statesThose who wear Congress on their sleeves and nurture a centuryold party in their hearts are happy to get some stability and popularity for the Gandhiled political outfit The people Im talking about here do not hold any position in the Congress They dont even call themselves Congress karyakartas And yet they are a core strength that religiously invests undying trust in the Gandhi family I prefer to call them devotees of the family instead of Congress loyalists because of the purity of their sentimental attachment with the NehruGandhisOver the past one week I have been interacting with some these devotees hailing from urban and rural areas They talk wisdom that should benefit Rahul in redeveloping the ruins They have a strong message for the man who decided to be different mdash an idealist They say Rahul is doing what they have been demanding of him They say the new president seems to have heard a collective voice that commoners like them have been raising for years togetherWhat does that collective voice say It wants Rahul to reestablish a missing connect between the top leadership and the people who feel disowned by Congress It probes to find a reason that obstructs a communication path between the top and the groundThe obstacle they say are leaders who have used the party for their own gains and unfortunately Rahul continues to be surrounded by such leaders Angry and frustrated an unemployed postgraduate from a village in Nagpur district counted and named for me some senior Congress leaders here who have built empires that will suffice for their own generations to come For Congress the story replicates itself elsewhere in Maharashtra and the rest of the countryOld and newMy further interaction with many more dejected Congress devotees should ring an alarm bell for Rahuls Congress in a changed scenario more so when the president dreams of making it a grand old new Congress How will he deal with the two mdash the old and the new mdash for achieving effective and longlasting results Will Rahuls idealism which can be interpreted as going beyond the self be practised by seasoned leaders in Congress Will reckless profiteers in the party put in true efforts to make Congress a movement that Rahul envisages Answers are hard to come byApparently Rahul has been able to give Congress a new lease of life His adversaries are on tenterhooks shaky and getting wild dreams in the wake of Congress presidents campaign in Gujarat Assembly polls Rahul has already emerged a hero success or failure notwithstanding Rahuls new narrative is full of promise but faced with a major hurdle The real challenge for him is to rid the party of existing pests and fumigate the organisation for preventing any further rotParty sympathisers workers and leaders who pursue a social cause in their politics are eager to watch Rahul out there in action on the field Party veterans who swear by their loyalty to the party and claimed to have remained spotless in their notsoflourished careers wish that Rahul learns from the past especially from his grandmother the late Indira Gandhi mdash the former Congress president and PM had gone through an equally painful and humiliating phase in her life she rose from the ashes by cleaning the dirt within the party Will Rahul be Congress next PhoenixDharmendra Jore is political editor midday He tweets dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go