By Liz Mathew
IANS
New Delhi : As the Congress does a review of its electoral debacle in Uttar Pradesh, party insiders are coming to an uncomfortable conclusion: Rahul Gandhi's somewhat aloof and corporate style of functioning is unlikely to fetch dividends in the long run for a party struggling to breathe again in India's most populous state.
Party sources said the Gandhi family is deeply upset over the showing in the state and that the one casualty of this could be that Rahul, who is known to be shy by nature, may have to give up his ways of zooming past the mass of voters, without making a lasting impression, and reduce his dependence on his technocrat non-political friends.
"Rahul Gandhi and his friends had concluded – thanks to their computer calculations – that the Congress would get at least 55-60 seats," pointed out a disappointed Congress leader.
Congress sources also said Rahul had been given a free hand in Uttar Pradesh and provided whatever resources he had sought. But nothing clicked.
The Congress had 25 seats in the outgoing assembly and won three seats less in the April-May elections despite whirlwind tours by both Rahul Gandhi, with some help from his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi.
According to poll analysts, the party vote share fell from 8.9 percent in 2002 to 8.6 percent, it could retain only seven of its 25 existing seats and only 66 percent of its earlier supporters voted for it in this election.
Rahul's own personal popularity also has not shown any considerable change. His popularity seems to have risen from a poor 5 percent to 7 percent despite the enormous media publicity surrounding his meetings and speeches.
The Rahul Gandhi style contrasts sharply with that of his more popular younger sister Priyanka, who Congress functionaries insist makes a better impact on voters because she builds a personal rapport with voters.
"Priyanka has a knack of striking an instant chord with the masses. She would make them feel comfortable. Rahul still has to go a long way to go to break the shell he seems to be in. He appears to be very shy," said a source close to the family who did not want to be named.
It may not be a coincidence, the sources say, that the Congress fared better in areas where Priyanka was in charge (Amethi and Rae Bareli) and fared miserably elsewhere in the sprawling state that had been virtually handed over to Rahul Gandhi.
While senior party leaders still fume over Rahul Gandhi's move to shun them all while planning the election strategy, some of the younger Congress leaders feel that the Gandhi scion should be "more political".
"There are people who have framed Congress strategies for decades. We have lived for the party," pointed a senior leader. "But today the younger ones don't need us."
While a lot of people in the party would claim to be close to Rahul, those who qualify to be called "friends of Rahul" and whose advise he apparently relies on are three or four people who include Kanishka Singh, son of former foreign secretary and Arunachal Pradesh governor S.K. Singh and a few other young MPs.
The senior leader, who too did not want to identified for fear of inviting the wrath of leaders, also found holes in Rahul Gandhi's public assertion in Uttar Pradesh that the party does not recognize caste, class and religion.
But even in this gloomy scenario, there are many who still support the 37-year-old Gandhi, a first time MP. Rahul's friends have already advised him to take charge of the campaign in poll-bound Gujarat where he would have to take on formidable Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
"There is nothing to lose heart over Uttar Pradesh. (Rahul's father and former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi also lost badly when he campaigned for the first time in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. But then he learnt along the way and picked up the entire nation," said B.K. Hariprasad, a Congress leader.