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Updated: Aug 18, 2019 09:24 IST

As Sonia Gandhi began work as the Congress’s interim president, holding meetings with functionaries and addressing the party on Independence Day, her son Rahul Gandhi has kept himself busy too.

Two new offices of Rahul Gandhi, 49, the MP from Kerala’s Wayanad, opened in Kalpetta and Mukkam in Malappuram district, and his trusted aide KB Byju has been stationed in the constituency where he will stay until ongoing flood relief work is completed.

The setting up of the new establishments marks a new phase in the political career of Rahul Gandhi, who resigned as party president on May 25, taking responsibility for the Congress’s rout in the Lok Sabha elections and paving the way for his mother’s selection as interim president on August 10. Rahul Gandhi was defeated by Smriti Irani in his family bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, but sailed through in Wayanad.

Rahul Gandhi’s new offices were to be inaugurated formally, but the plan was cancelled after Wayanad was hit by floods and landslides on August 8. That was just before the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, met on August 10, chose Sonia Gandhi as interim president, and accepted Rahul Gandhi’s resignation. Even before his resignation was accepted at that meeting, he had to hit the ground running given the seriousness of the floods and landslides in Wayanad and elsewhere in Kerala.

Instead of a slow and steady introduction to the people of his constituency, it was a familiarisation exercise prompted by an emergency.

As videos emerged of his interactions with the people, what became apparent was that Gandhi was facing the challenge of dealing with an constituency that hast been outside the Nehru-Gandhi family ambit where he isn’t totally familiar with either the people or the local language.

Congress functionaries say that isn’t a problem. They point to how Rahul Gandhi interacted comfortably with residents at a camp in Chundel, and was able to convey to the district collector that displaced residents wanted to go back home. The roads were damaged and so he asked the local administration to get them repaired. There are other interaction the functionaries point to that he had at the Catholic Church camp and the MES College camp housing displaced people where he seemed to be in his element,

Yet, the 2,460km between Delhi and Wayanad is a long distance to cover. While the Kerala government and administration told him to stay away from Wayanad for the first few days so that they wouldn’t be distracted by the need to make security arrangements for his visit, there are those in Kerala who feel that Gandhi was late to react to the disaster.

“Murmurs started with his late arrival after the deluge and destruction started. His stay was brief. If he keeps it like this, Wayanadu could go the Amethi way,”’ writer NS Madhavan said. He did add “These are early days though.’’

As Rahul Gandhi came back to Delhi, there were indications of the kind of role he will play in his new stint -- caring for his constituency but also taking the lead on national issues. One of the highlights of his week has been taking on Jammu & Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik. When the governor challenged him to voice his opinions in the Valley, Gandhi retorted with a demand for free access to all regions and all those who were under house arrest.

“He’s not just another MP, he is an ex-Congress president. I don’t agree that his role is anything new. He continues to be very important,’’ said senior leader KC Venugopal.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sreedharan Pillai was less forgiving. ``He is totally alien to Wayanad people. He visited those places but he hasn’t realized the problems of the people there,’’ said Pillai.

According to another of his aides, Rahul Gandhi was all set to leave for the Valley and spend 3-4 days in Kashmir. He confirms that, from now on, he will be seen more out of Delhi, not just in Wayanad although that’s where he is expected to spend another week by the end of the month.

Congress functionaries point out that he attended Parliament daily in the just-concluded session in an illustration of how he has become a more involved participant who doesn’t have to spend half his time attending to organisational issues anymore.

Even so, political watchers point out that he may have been in Parliament, but he wasn’t heard. “His role in the party will continue to be critical and he will not have to be concerned about having to be accountable. The fact that he has chosen not to speak in the Lok Sabha after the elections demonstrates this point,’’ said analyst Sandeep Shastri.

Team Rahul Gandhi responded by saying that it was a deliberate move to not speak in Parliament because he didn’t want to at a time when his position in the Congress party was ambiguous. Now that the ambiguity is gone, he is expected to make himself heard in Parliament.