Hours after Congress announced Rahul Gandhi and KL Sharma as their respective candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies and amidst biting criticism over the Gandhi scion running away from Amethi, senior Congress leaders have come to the defence of their leader, offering lengthy explanations over the decision that almost sounds like satirical posts.
Jairam Ramesh recently took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to brand Rahul Gandhi’s move of abandoning Amethi as some sort of a ‘masterclass chess move’ to stump his opponents. “Remember, he is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion and as part of a larger strategy,” Ramesh said in a long tweet rationalising the party’s decision to field Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi.
A similarly curated tweet in Hindi was posted by Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, enlisting rationales behind why Rahul Gandhi ran away from Amethi.
जबसे राहुल जी की रायबरेली से लड़ने की खबर आयी है, हर ओर से खूब सारी टिप्पणियों की भरमार है।
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) May 3, 2024
भूलिए मत, राहुल जी शतरंज के माहिर खिलाड़ी हैं। उनकी एक ही चाल से BJP और उनके चरण चुंबकों को मूर्छा आ गई है।
• रायबरेली सिर्फ़ सोनिया जी की नहीं, ख़ुद इंदिरा गांधी जी की सीट रही है. यह…
However, far from being a solemn explanation rationalising the party’s decision to field Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli, the defence offered by senior Congress leaders like Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate almost sounds like a political satire, underscoring everything that ails the Congress party.
Here are 5 points from their explanation that sound like satire:
‘Rahul Gandhi’s nomination from Rae Bareli was a masterstroke chess move to outfox the BJP’
Congress leaders insist that the last-minute switch from Amethi to Rae Bareli was intended to outsmart the BJP, but instead, it ended up catching his own party workers off guard. They had expected Rahul Gandhi to file his nominations from Amethi and had decorated their offices in anticipation that Gandhi might visit it. Now they are the ones who seemed outwitted by the party’s decision.
‘Rae Bareli’ is not an inheritance but a responsibility and a duty
Defending the move, the Congress leaders said the Gandhi family bastion ‘Rae Bareli’ is not an inheritance but a responsibility and a duty. Defending the move, Ramesh said the Gandhi family bastion ‘Rae Bareli’ is not an inheritance but a responsibility and a duty. Ramesh’s argument in favour of Rae Bareli being a responsibility and not an inheritance is that it has been with the Gandhis for over three generations.
‘Entire country from north to south is the Gandhi stronghold’
The Congress leaders further claim that the entire country, from north to south has been a Gandhi stronghold. To stress their point, they claim Rahul Gandhi has been MP thrice from Uttar Pradesh and once from Kerala. However, they fail to explain why was the Congress party reduced to double digits in the 2014 and 2019 elections when the entire country was supposed to be a Gandhi stronghold and with Gandhis being the face of Congress.
‘A common Congress worker will break the arrogance of the BJP in Amethi’
The senior Congress leaders then resort to virtue signalling over the decision of fielding KL Sharma against Union Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi.
“Yesterday, an eminent journalist was sarcastically asking a ground worker of the Congress Party in Amethi, “When will it be your turn to get tickets?” Here it is! A common Congress worker will break the arrogance of the BJP in Amethi,” Ramesh tweeted.
While the Congress would want the country to believe that they are empowering a ground worker to take on the might of a senior BJP leader, what they fail to explain is why was there so much delay in announcing his candidature. Surely, KL Sharma would have been in a better position to organise his political campaign and public meetings with locals if he had been declared as Amethi candidate well in advance.
‘Priyanka Gandhi is not contesting because she should not be limited to one constituency’
In yet another bizarre and laughable rationale, the Congress leaders asserted that Priyanka Gandhi is not contesting the Lok Sabha elections because she should not be limited to one constituency.
“Priyanka ji is campaigning vigorously and is single-handedly silencing Narendra Modi’s lies. The way she responded to the canards that the PM was spreading on the abolition of estate duty in March 1985 was a stinging rebuke. That is why it was important that she should not be limited to just one constituency. She is campaigning across the country,” Ramesh said in his tweet.
According to Ramesh, nomination confines a leader to a single constituency and undermines their ability to campaign for the party across the country. If this was the case, why is Rahul Gandhi fighting from two constituencies and not campaigning for the party across the country like his sibling?
