On July 3, In a four-page letter posted on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi declared that he had resigned as Congress president. Ten days later, a statement issued by All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal announced that the 'honourable Congress president' had approved the proposal for the appointment of the president and working presidents of the Maharashtra Congress Committee. Unlike in the past, where such appointment letters categorically said Congress president Rahul Gandhi, this note did not mention the name of the 'honourable Congress president'.

Who, then, is the Congress president?

Rough weather: Rahul and Sonia Gandhi at a Save Democracy’ protest outside Parliament over the crisis in Karnataka and Goa, July 11. (Photo: Sonu Mehta/Getty Images)

Who approved these appointments? When asked, Congress communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala told INDIA TODAY: "Rahul Gandhi continues to be the president of the party as the party has not accepted his resignation. These appointments were approved by Rahul Gandhi." So, confusion reigns and it appears Rahul is still unofficially in charge.

It's this kind of rudderlessness that has brought the party to its current pass in Indian electoral politics-it has just 52 representatives in the 543-member Lok Sabha and is in power in only six out of 29 states-- Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Puducherry-accounting for 838 members of the total 4,120 MLAs across the country. It does not have a single MLA in five state assemblies-- Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Delhi. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, it drew a blank in 13 states. The declining pan-India reach of the party is evident from the fact that 31 of its 52 seats came from just three states-Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab.

Now, with the confusion over Rahul Gandhi's resignation, most party leaders, especially the workers on the ground, are staring at an uncertain future and feeling demoralised and directionless. Three states-Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand-- will go to the polls later this year. Despite a drubbing in all three states in the general election, the Congress units remain mired in infighting with no immediate plan of putting up a fight in the assembly polls. Maharashtra got a new president last week in Balasaheb Thorat, but, without the backing of a strong central leadership, it will be a daunting task for him to put the faction-ridden state Congress in order. If that weren't enough, a series of defections and desertions-first in Karnataka and then in Goa-now threatens to spread to other states, particularly MP, where the Kamal Nath-led Congress government survives on a wafer-thin majority. In both Karnataka and Goa, the party had seen the crisis approaching, but failed to avert it. It is this inexplicable unwillingness to act in time that has crippled the party at the national level and in almost every state.

Resignation or rebellion?

In 2014, after the party was reduced to 44 members in the Lok Sabha, Rahul, then the Congress vice-president, had, following consultations with over 400 party leaders and workers from across the country, prepared a blueprint for a radical restructuring of the party and submitted it to his mother and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi. However, both she and the party veterans were wary of Rahul's radical plans and put his blueprint in cold storage. An upset Rahul went for a nearly two-month-long Vipassana retreat, returned calmer and agreed to work around the traditional Congress set-up, making adjustments in bits and pieces. When he became pre­sident in December 2017, he reached out to the veterans and constituted a Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, which had an average age of 67. The priorities, too, had changed-defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party seemed more urgent than embarking on an overhaul of the party, which was a long-term project. Rahul yielded to the demands of the veterans-- Amarinder Singh was made Punjab Congress president and eventually the chief minister; Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath were also made chief ministers.

Graphics by Tanmoy Chakraborty

But when it came to expecting returns from these stalwarts, Rahul felt let down. In what turned out to be almost a presidential-style election between Rahul and Modi, the Gandhi scion used multiple weapons against the prime minister-allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal, the promise of NYAY or a minimum income guarantee to the poor, and earlier even indulged in theatrics by hugging the prime minister in Parliament to showcase his message of love and compassion versus the BJP's 'divisive politics'. He practised soft Hindutva, hopping from one temple to the other. But, as his close aides often complain, no senior leader across the country made any attempt to take his message to the voters.

"He travelled across the country, shouting at the top of his voice, fighting Modi and the RSS," says a close aide of Rahul. "The so-called veterans, with claims of massive networks and following within the party, did not even motivate party workers to disseminate Rahul's message. Considering the anger against the Modi government on economic issues such as demonetisation and unemployment, NYAY could have been a game-changer. But the voters were unaware of it even in states we were ruling, such as MP and Rajasthan." This sentiment finds echo among grassroots workers. "Why should it be only the Gandhi family's job to carry the entire burden?" asks Jagdish Bhati, 54, a Congress worker from Jodhpur.

Rahul's Twitter post reflected this anger against his colleagues. 'I personally fought the prime minister, the RSS and the institutions they have captured with all my being. At times, I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it,' he wrote. His resignation at the CWC meeting on May 25 was inten­ded to push the veterans into accepting accountability and make way for the reforms he had intended to implement. There was a direct message in his post: 'It is a habit in India that the powerful cling to power; no one sacrifices power. But we will not defeat our opponents without sacrificing the desire for power and fighting a deeper ideological battle.'

For the moment, Rahul's plan has backfired, as the veterans are unwilling to make the sacrifices he expects. Gehlot is a classic case, exemplifying the difficulty in executing any change in the Congress. While Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot led the party to victory in the assembly election last year, Gehlot was made chief minister because he had promised to deliver a superlative performance in the Lok Sabha election. With the party drawing a blank in the state, the Pilot camp has been clamouring for Gehlot's removal. Rahul even openly admonished Gehlot along with his MP counterpart Kamal Nath and former Union minister P. Chidambaram for promoting their children's interests above the party's. An unmoved Gehlot later said the party won the assembly election because voters wanted to see him as the chief minister; the Lok Sabha debacle reflected a nationwide trend.

Who will be the next leader?

While the veterans failed to convey his message and also stayed put in their positions, Rahul, says a Lok Sabha MP, believes the demand for change will come from within, especially from the youngsters, and the party will do a course correction. The demand for change has already come, although surprisingly from two veterans-Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and former Union minister Karan Singh. Both have said the party should elect a young leader as president. "Rahul has shown the way for a young leadership to take the party's reins and steer it to greater heights. Only a youth leader can revive the grand old party," Amarinder said. Congress insiders believe the Punjab chief minister was indirectly hinting at giving the party mantle to Sachin Pilot, who is close to the Captain. Pilot is also one of the few Congress leaders who has focused on creating a mass base in the past five years. He has been travelling across Rajasthan even after the Lok Sabha drubbing. A week after the defeat, Pilot was sleeping under the stars on farmer Jaikishan's land in Kasela village, as part of a two-day visit to the Sirohi, Jalore and Pali districts. "The party can be revived with sustained efforts. We have to work towards endearing ourselves to the common citizen. The Congress now urgently needs a president who can instil confidence in the party rank and file. We have to give a strong message that we mean business," Pilot told INDIA TODAY.

The Contenders: The old guard wants to maintain its clout by installing a low-profile Sonia loyalist; the young Turks sniff an opportunity to assert their leadership. "Pilot is trying to evolve a leadership that is backed by the masses and not by the grace of a small coterie of office-bearers on 24, Akbar Road who have little connect with ground realities," says a senior Congress leader. Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has openly demanded that the CWC decide the next president without further delay, is another strong young contender.

Pilot and Scindia can expect support from other young leaders such as Milind Deora, who says he is willing to support any young, energetic and efficient leader as Congress president. "I'm thankful to the Punjab chief minister who, despite being a senior leader, has openly advocated for a young leadership. I would not like to take names, but there are three or four young leaders in the party who are obvious choices for the post," says Deora.

The former Union minister, who has resigned as president of the Mumbai Congress, however, has ruled himself out of the race even though earlier he had tweeted that he was ready for a national role. "I'm ready to help the new president in any capacity, but I'm not seeking the position myself," he told INDIA TODAY.

The old guard, though, remains unmoved by the Captain's argument that "any change in the party leadership must reflect India's social reality, with 65 per cent of its population under 35". In fact, a top CWC member claims that even Sonia Gandhi doesn't want a young leader as he or she may outshine Rahul Gandhi, effectively ending the beleaguered career of her son. The veterans are now strongly backing former Union minister Mukul Wasnik, who will turn 60 in September, as a compromise candidate between the old and the young. The other names being floated are of Mallikarjun Kharge, 76, and Sushilkumar Shinde, 77. While their Dalit identity may be useful, the main criterion in their favour is loyalty to the Gandhi family and equation with the old guard. Political observers say if the party misses this opportunity to instil fresh energy, it will drive the final nail into the Congress coffin. 'No leader will be found if the attempt is to find a dummy, not a leader. A dummy president will make a dummy of the party,' diplomat and author Gopal Krishna Gandhi wrote in a column.

Diminishing Returns: How the party has performed since Indira Gandhi formed her own congress in 1969.

For most senior CWC members who owe their positions in the party to loyalty to the Gandhis, a non-Gandhi president could signal the end of their political careers. A young and assertive president will possibly set up his own channel of communication with Rahul Gandhi, who is not particularly fond of the old guard, and sideline the veterans. Rahul's categorical announcement that he will not be part of the process of selecting the new president has also delayed the process as the CWC leaders-without the authority of a Gandhi to back them-also fear rebellion and a split in the party in the absence of a consensus.

Can a non-Gandhi revive the congress?

The new Congress president will have to fight a BJP that is firmly entrenched in power, is armed with a formidable electoral machinery and in an India where Hindu nationalist sentiment is running high. He or she will also preside over a party that has been electorally devastated and organisationally hollowed out.

'We are with you' Congress workers express solidarity with Rahul Gandhi during a march in Delhi, June 1. (Photo: Qamar Sibtain/Mail Today)

The new president's challenges, therefore, will be twofold-to rebuild its organisational structure across the states and to project an alternative ideological narrative to the BJP's. In fact, in the past five years, Rahul has often reiterated that it's the organisational strength of the BJP backed by the well-oiled machinery of the RSS that the Congress has to fight. "The party's institutional pillars have given way to centralised command and control, and loyalty has replaced ideology," says Zoya Hasan, who teaches political science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. In an effort to induct an ideologically motivated cadre like the RSS, Rahul had even tried to revive the Congress Seva Dal. The most immediate job of the new Congress president will be to democratise and empower state and district units so that the party can build its organisational structure-based on merit and performance-in every state. "A political worker is not an unpaid servant," says Dinesh Singh Rathor, 60, a Congress worker from Hazaribagh. "We expect respect. Our voice never reaches the top leadership in Delhi. So they never know the ground realities."

In fact, grassroots workers from across the states say the difference in approaches towards the cadre has resulted in different electoral outcomes for the BJP and Congress. "Unlike the BJP, the Congress doesn't take care of the problems of the workers. The BJP regularly launches programmes to connect with the local public, but Congress workers don't have any such exercise," says Mukesh Singh Chauhan, 40, from Lucknow. "While the BJP has offices in every district, the Congress, which was in power twice in Uttarakhand, doesn't have a decent state-level office where a worker can get a glass of clean water," says Rajesh Chamoli, a young secretary in the Uttarakhand PCC.

It's not that the Congress has not recognised the path to reform. Rahul's father and former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, had famously declared the Congress to be a party of power-brokers, but did little to change that. Sonia Gandhi had set up at least four major committees to revamp the party. The first was the task force headed by P.A. Sangma, and the second the A.K. Antony committee to conduct a post-mortem of the Congress performance in the 1998 Lok Sabha election. Their recommendations were never implemented. When the United Progressive Alliance, or UPA, first formed the government, Sonia Gandhi set up a third committee, The Group to Look into Future Challenges, headed by Veerappa Moily to examine the same issues: party reorganisation and intra-party reforms. The Moily committee identified the lack of internal democracy as a key reason for the growing disillusionment with the organisation. No action was taken on it. After the defeat in 2014, Sonia Gandhi appointed another committee headed by Antony, but that report too was never made public. As Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor, puts it, post-2019, there has been no introspection even to understand why the party lost and what went right for the winning candidates.

According to Satish Mishra of the Observer Research Foundation, the most important task for the Congress now is "to crystallise its ideological vision". The party has been unable to formulate a clear-cut ideology on several contentious issues, such as the NRC, the Ram temple, triple talaq and the Balakot strike. In its attempt to be inclusive, the party has been swinging between soft Hindutva and minority appeasement. It did not help the party wean the Hindu voters away from the BJP, and it lost the minority votes to the regional parties.

While the Modi-led BJP has openly promoted Hindu nationalism and succeeded in hardselling the dream of a strong and prosperous India to a young and aspirational populace, the Congress has remained stuck in the socialist ideals of a welfare economy and glorification of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. What has hurt the party the most is the BJP's successful appropriation of major Congress icons, including Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, while blaming Jawaharlal Nehru for everything that has gone wrong in India.

However, the ideological battle between the Congress and the BJP is what makes the revival of the grand old party crucial for the health of the Indian democracy. The BJP and Congress remain the only two national parties with a gen­uinely national perspective. With the Left reduced to just one state, the Congress is the lone pan-India challenger to the BJP's continuously rising political power graph. With over 300 Lok Sabha MPs and 13 states under its rule, the BJP under Narendra Modi has come to dominate India's political and electoral landscape like never before. On the other hand, family or individual-centric regional parties such as the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Telugu Desam Party, Nationalist Congress Party and Trinamool Congress have been fighting existential battles of their own. Others like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Biju Janata Dal and the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party have used their electoral capital as a bargaining tool with the BJP. Under these circumstances, the Congress has immense political significance as a safeguard against one party hijacking the national discourse in the country.

The Congress Universe

Is it the end of the road for the Gandhis?

For Congress leaders who believe only a member of the Gandhi family has the stature to unite squabbling party chieftains and motivate workers, this is previously uncharted territory-a non-Gandhi president while three Gandhis remain active in politics. While Rahul will now just be a member of the party, Priyanka has not quit as general secretary. In fact, in the past one month, not only has she held review meetings in UP, but has also been very active on Twitter, responding to develop­ments in different fields-from politics to sports to mishaps.

The success or failure of the new president, therefore, will largely dep­end on the kind of role the Gandhi family decides to play. "As far as I know him, Rahul Gandhi will give the new president enough space to do the things necessary to revive the party. He will certainly cooperate and offer guidance and not interfere with the functioning of the president," says Deora.

Though Rahul has already stated emphatically that neither he nor any member of his family-mother Sonia or sister Priyanka-will take up the top job, he is unlikely to remain an ordinary Congressman. If his actions since May 23 are any indicator, he will certainly be more vocal and visible. He has already outlined his course of action in his letter-to fight the battle against the BJP-RSS in a new avatar, of an ordinary Congressman. Leaving the organisational work to the new president, he will chart out the ideological narrative of the party. "Modi is the face of the BJP while Amit Shah runs the party. Similarly, Rahul will remain our leader though we may find a new president to revamp the organisation," says CWC member Ram Chandra Khuntia. Rahul's resignation will also rob the Modi-BJP of their jibes about the Congress being a party of dynasts.

However, while Rahul may have seized the moral high ground with his resignation, he will need a functional party to capitalise on it. He has to leverage his authority as a Gandhi to force the party out of its stupor and decide on a successor. And it has to happen soon. If this inexpli­cable suspense over leadership continues, it may precipitate further deserti­ons, factionalism, a demoralised cadre and electoral setbacks. That's not an outcome the party or the nation need.

What ails the Congress?

An overdependence on the Gandhi family has meant the party failed to cultivate mass leaders at the national or state level. Strong state leaders were also not allowed to grow, leading many, such as Mamata Banerjee, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Jagan Mohan Reddy, to quit.

has meant the party failed to cultivate mass leaders at the national or state level. Strong state leaders were also not allowed to grow, leading many, such as Mamata Banerjee, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Jagan Mohan Reddy, to quit. Decisions in the party are made by leaders who have no mass base ; the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, has just three Lok Sabha MPs and five MLAs among its 47 members.

; the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, has just three Lok Sabha MPs and five MLAs among its 47 members. Unlike the BJP, the Congress never focused on building the organisational structure . It has few grassroots workers in the states or districts. In six states-Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu-which account for 250 Lok Sabha seats, the party has no credible organisational structure.

. It has few grassroots workers in the states or districts. In six states-Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu-which account for 250 Lok Sabha seats, the party has no credible organisational structure. The party has no clear narrative on contentious issues , such as terror from Pakistan, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), triple talaq or the Ayodhya dispute. Its attempts to be inclusive and swing between soft Hindutva and minority appeasement neither helped wean Hindu voters from the BJP nor prevent minority votes from going to regional parties.

, such as terror from Pakistan, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), triple talaq or the Ayodhya dispute. Its attempts to be inclusive and swing between soft Hindutva and minority appeasement neither helped wean Hindu voters from the BJP nor prevent minority votes from going to regional parties. The excessive focus on the Nehru-Gandhi family allowed the BJP to appropriate other Congress icons such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel.

Wanted, a President

Going by the party constitution, a Congress president is elected by All India Con­g­ress Committee and Pradesh Congress Committee members. Elections have been held only on three occasions since Indira Gandhi broke away from the parent party in 1969 to form the Cong­ress (R), which later became the Congress (I) and finally the Indian National Congress. Loyal Indira lieutenant K.B. Reddy was elected president in 1977, Sitaram Kesri two decades later. He soon had to make way for Sonia Gandhi, who trounced her challenger Jitendra Prasada, winning 7,448 votes against his 94. In December 2017, Rahul Gandhi was elected unopposed.

His resignation has necessi­tated an election. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has no authority to select a Congress president. However, according to the rulebook, "in the event of any emergency by reason of any cause such as the death or resignation of the president", the seniormost general secretary discharges the routine functions of the president and the CWC can appoint a provisional president till the time a regular president is elected. There is no clarity on how the seniority a general secretary is to be decided-by age or tenure. However, as CWC member R.C. Khuntia says, since Rahul's resignation has not been accepted yet, he continues to be president.

-With Ashish Misra, Amitabh Srivastava, Romita Datta, Amarnath K. Menon, Jeemon Jacob, Kiran D. Tare, Rahul Noronha and Rohit Parihar