It will be fascinating to see how Rahul Gandhi will deal with the aftermath of his party's worst electoral defeat . A leader's mettle is tested in defeat as much in victory.If Indira Gandhi was "Durga" personified in power, the way she fought with and destroyed the Janata Party regime made her a lioness when out of power. Her controversial son Sanjay too helped in Congress ' triumphant return in 1980. Rajiv Gandhi was lucky; tensions within the minority V P Singh regime made its demise unavoidable. Sonia Gandhi had the benefit of making her political debut when the Congress had been in opposition for eight testing years. It helped her in two ways: in tempering her personality and to recognise her limits by tapping into the huge reservoir of skilful Congress leaders, spotted and nurtured mostly by Indira and Sanjay Gandhi.Rahul made his political debut and carried out his experiments within the Congress organisation with the comfort of the party being in power during 2004-14. Today, he has run away from the first real challenge he faced after the polls: To lead the Congress in Opposition benches.Any instinctive politician would take to the floor of Parliament as fish to water. But in Parliament for 10 years, Rahul has tried to camouflage his shortcomings by either remaining absent or chatting away on a backbench.But Team Rahul wants us to believe that his "reluctance" is due to his focus on organisational rebuilding, his pet obsession for the last 10 years. This had three planks: holding "organisational elections", "talent-hunts" and "creating young leaders".The Congress has seen many real organisational elections. Subhas Bose defeated Gandhiji's nominee, Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, to become Congress president. Patel's nominee Purushottam Das Tandon beat Nehru's nominee Acharya Kripalani. Indira Gandhi beat Morarji Desai to become the Prime Minister.Elections to the Congress Working Committee took place under both P V Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri. Kesri got reelected as Congress chief by defeating Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in a triangular contest.History shows that each of these elections only deepened Congress' inner wounds rather than healing them. The same happened when elections took place in state units. K Karunakaran's nominee Vayalar Ravi voted out A K Antony for the party chief 's (PCC) post.Digvijaya Singh beat Dileep Singh Bhuria to become PCC chief and S C Shukla to become chief minister, in Madhya Pradesh. It is tempting to view Sitaramaiah's election to become CM of Karnataka with rose-tinted glasses.Afterward, intra-party bickering led to the state Congress doing poorly in the Lok Sabha. Before and after Independence, Congress stalwarts could not reconcile political and personality differences by holding organisational elections. The key to leadership in the Congress is to have the ability and skills to manage, harmonise and balance clashing views and personalities, something Sonia does well.Team Rahul's armchair zeal for organisational elections in the Youth Congress led to candidates who could outspend their rivals capturing key posts. Many embittered young people from the party left, and factional rivalries deepened among those who stayed. Rahul created much of his team through talent hunts. Not one has emerged as a leader with any potential.Like Indira and Sanjay, Rahul also tried to create his followers at the AICC and state units, to clip the wings of the old guard. Rahul imposed mostly greenhorns at the AICC. He sent some as PCC chiefs to states where they would, normally, take a decade to decode caste and factional intricacies. Most are at the mercy of the seasoned old guard. Only a skilful leader can create a new line of leadership and churn internal power structures.During Rahul's 10-year leadership building, the Congress' rainbow social constituency — Brahmin-Dalit-Muslim — was finished off. The selection of Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad to lead the party in Parliament won't bring Dalits and Muslims back. Tokenism without grassroots empowerment has run its course.So, Congress' veteran Dalit leaders, Sushilkumar Shinde and Meira Kumar, both lost polls because they lost their connect with their communities long ago. Its minority affairs minister-turned-external affairs minister Salman Khurshid came fourth in a Muslim-dominated seat.With Janardan Dwivedi as the AICC's Brahmin face, the Congress failed to get a popular Brahmin to contest against Narendra Modi in Varanasi. The Gandhis' patronage made political greenhorn Prithviraj Chavan the chief minister of Maharashtra.Under him, Congress withers in this key state every day. As the Congress looks set for a long spell in Opposition, it is time Rahul asks whether he has it in him to be a real leader. It is high time Rahul shapes up. Or ships out. For a Gandhi who cannot deliver, there is no free lunch in a crisis-torn Congress.