The question ideally should have ended with “Is Rahul Gandhi ready to lead the Congress?”. The corollary “to victory in 2024″ actually distorts the question and makes it meaningless. Nobody can say that he's ready to lead the party only if the party wins.
Rahul can only say whether he's ready to lead the party or not. Victory or defeat, both will be his credibility. And when you start leading something you are never sure what would be the end result. No doubt you could be strongly optimistic about victory. People ask for the leadership position because they feel they can do justice to the position if given to them. Most people take leadership positively by demanding it. So if Rahul Gandhi takes the leadership role he will definitely be optimistic about a positive outcome. And he would have to work towards bringing a positive outcome and make it possible.
Rahul is one of those people for whom the formal leadership position is not necessary to take the lead. Look at his eyes in the above picture he means business. Mod has never been BJP president. But he became the PM without ever being the party president. The party president has to take orders from him. The BJP president is not above him. Advani couldn’t become PM despite being party president. Rajnath Singh also couldn’t become PM despite being party president. Mahatma Gandhi was Congress President only once. But he was the most powerful person in Congress. He led Congress, not the party president. Modi leads the party, not J P Nadda. The BJP party president has always been subservient to the PM from the party.
Similarly, position or no position party follows Rahul. He doesn’t require a formal position to lead the party. The party now looks up to him. It was Rahul who undertook the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He's already leading the party. Whom do BJP and its supporters criticize the most? How do you spot a leader? Whom do I criticize the most? Its Modi. I am not so critical of Amt Shah Rajnath Singh and the other ministers. Naturally, it's the leader who gets maximum appreciation as well as the criticisms.
Now just measure the level of attack and criticisms Rahul faces and then decide who's leading Congress. Had someone else been the Congress leader BJP would have chosen to attack him, not Rahul. This is the natural process of deduction to spot the leader. When a party like the BJP with a leader like Mod at the helm of affairs has to focus all its energy and resources on criticizing and condemning someone without any position for the last 10–15 years and still fails to pull him down then the person has to have some great quality. An ordinary person would have collapsed long back.
Whom does the BJP criticize the most among the past Congress leaders? Nehru & Gandhi! Why? Because they were the leaders. Others including Sardar Patel failed to take the lead and failed to make the nation follow them. No point in the BJP complaining that Nehru and Gandhi didn’t let Sardar Patel become PM. Gandhi earned his position and made leaders in Congress listen to his terms.
Nobody let anybody become the leader. People become leaders by their own might. Nobody made Gandhiji the leader of Congress. Modi became PM bypassing other senior national leaders of the BJP. Nehru spent more than nine years in jail. Jawaharlal Nehru went to jail nine times and was in jail for 3259 days. Gandhi spent six years in jail a total of 2,338. Patel also had his share of jail terms too — six times totaling around six years. See the battle started much before the race for PM’s chair.
Advani was in the race for PM’s chair much before Modi. But he couldn’t make it for whatever reason. The reason is not that important. Just imagine the founder of the BJP was thrown out unceremoniously. It is the same Advani who made Modi CM. It is the same Advan who didn't let Vajpayee sack Modi after the Gujarat riot. It is the same Advani who started Rath Yatra. It is the same Advani who spearheaded the Ram Janambhumi movement and made BJP a national party. But Modi became PM sidelining Advani
So it is Rahul who is going to lead the party for all practical purposes. If victory comes to Congress in 2024 it would be because of him as the leader of Congress.
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