CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had no hesitation in declaring last month that Rahul Gandhi cannot take the opposition parties along if he comes Congress party president replacing his mother Sonia Gandhi. “Sonia is the glue that binds the opposition,” he told CNN News 18. “The united opposition will break if Rahul takes over.”Yechury may be thinking about Rahul Gandhi’s contribution in the 2016 West Bengal assembly elections when the communists teamed up with the Congress to fight Mamata and the BJP. Or he may be thinking about Rahul’s contribution to the secularists’ cause in UP in the assembly elections in February-March. Or about the Gandhi scion’s recent troubles and the humiliating loss in the UP civil elections. In the first instance, Mamata won a thumping victory, while in the second the BJP swept all before it in the assembly and the municipal polls.The fact that an opposition party leader like Yechury (one who also virulently opposes the BJP) talks like this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. Here is a party leader who has spent the last five years on the losing side of most elections. Except for HP(2012), Karnataka (2013), Bihar (2015), and Punjab (2017).Rahul Gandhi has lost all major state polls and the Congress has been reduced to a rump outfit ruling over just one big state, Karnataka. It may lose that also next year. Here is a party leader who has failed to win over even fellow opposition parties and leaders, forget about the country, since becoming an active campaigner in the 2012 UP elections. Yet the Congress and Lutyens’ intellectual cheerleaders want him to desperately succeed and believe that he is the man to beat PM Narendra Modi!Yechury’s views may not be shared by everybody but it is useful to keep it in mind as the Congress moves to anoint Rahul Gandhi as party president this month. Mr Gandhi is a lucky politician in many ways. He doesn’t have to prove his ability to win elections, doesn’t have to show his grasp of policy or prove his skill in tough negotiations with opposition politicians. He is an automatic choice for leadership! This month, despite crucial electoral failures and a deep erosion in credibility, Mr Gandhi is set to take over as Congress party president, a post held by such political stalwarts like Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru etc. Let that sink in!As Mr Gandhi was criss-crossing Gujarat mouthing one-liners, Amit Shah BJP leader was running a different sort of campaign. He was also crisscrossing the state, but instead of angry ramblings to sparse crowds, Mr Shah was busy putting together the nuts and bolts of massive electoral machinery that his party has built in the state. This machine, Mr Shah and his advisors believe, will deliver a massive victory to the party. In his must-read book, How the BJP wins, Hindustan Times political editor Prashant Jha writes about well-oiled party machinery whose only job during elections is to deliver large numbers of people to vote for the lotus symbol. It is a machine built with only one objective in mind. Seize political power and hold on to it.Mr Gandhi and his partymen have no such killer instinct. But instead of building the party ground up, they are busy spouting oneliners and attacking PM Modi in Gujarat. They are busy playing caste politics and promising 80s style freebies hoping to lure millennials who have no memory of Congress party in power. They have no leadership, no grass-roots organisation, no vote getters and no agenda! This strategy is based on mistaken belief that Mr Modi and his party came to power in 2014 by clever marketing and social media success. Since Mr Modi has refurbished and resold most of UPA govt programmes, Cong strategists believe that they would have won in 2014 if they had done a better job of marketing themselves. This is what makes them criticise Modi in the hope that the marketing magic will wear off!This approach also shows Rahul Gandhi’s dilettantism at work! A shoot-and-scoot approach without any overarching philosophy or strategy and relies only on the here and now! So, Akhilesh Yadav was important in early 2017 assembly polls but not so important when it came to civic polls. The Congress strategists don’t even think twice about dumping an ally after a loss. Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakore are important now but God knows what their fate will be after December 18.This same dilettantism was on display during the fracas over Mr Gandhi’s religion. Congress leaders and Lutyens cheerleaders lost no time in mouthing the same old `whyis-religion-important’ argument without realising that it was their leader who made religion a visible and important part of the campaign. After spending much time in Gujarat talking about Shiv Bhakti and temples, Mr Gandhi perhaps realised that it is not working or that he is losing support of minorities! Why else would he allow such a goof-up to happen!As I said before, Mr Gandhi is a lucky politician. He can say anything about Rafale and the Nano plant but few people will hold him to account on that. But there is something important here that he and his party are forgetting!The 2015 ‘suit-boot-ki-sarkar’ jibe and the Bihar election defeat rattled the BJP to some extent possibly forcing a course correction.The problem for Mr Gandhi is he did nothing to build on that success. A dilettantish approach is unlikely to play dividends in politics where ground work, organisational skills and cadre support and motivation are important. One day Mr Gandhi may realise this but it may be too late!