NEW DELHI: As Rahul Gandhi is finally getting ready to take over as Congress President, there is a sense of relief and suspense in party circles. Relief, because of the demonstrated “run-away” streak the 47-year-old Gandhi had displayed every time the Congress establishment lines up the orchestra for his ceremonial plunge. Suspense is understandable due to the mostly patchy track-record of his many organisational and political experiments as ‘de facto leader’. This was increasingly visible after Congress president Sonia Gandhi , eager to pass on the mantle, started delegating more powers to him for over four years now.Yet, most Congress leaders have a cultivated belief to have ‘a Gandhi mascot’ to act as the glue in a party of never-ending mutinies and clash of personalities and views. Most of them feel that it is better late than never to formalise the inevitable transition than live in a lingering state of organisational confusion and drift. The comparatively better performance — vis-a-vis his own past public conduct — Gandhi has put out during the recent addresses at some US universities and during his recent domestic tours, has also made many in the party hope that he is on the way to a ‘second coming’. Whether he likes it or not, his elevation will instantly start the “Modi Vs Rahul 2019 battle” promos.Though the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution almost a year ago, appealing to Gandhi to take charge, the event has been stretched to make it the culmination of the party’s organisational elections this month. The calculations of the Congress leaders are much more. They feel the economic slowdown, meltdown of the demonetisation plank, pains of GST implementation, distress in the farm sector, young Indians’ dismay over diminishing jobs, downbeat middle-class mood amid uptrend domestic fuel prices and inflation, sense of gloom in medium and small enterprises and the not-so-secret worries of the industry –– all have landed for the first time since the 2014 saffron electoral wave.With the development plank of the Modi government and BJP in a spot, the Opposition camp for once sees a ray of light when moves begin for the general elections, 18 months away. This comes at a time when the social fault-lines have already been sharpened with minority communities, Dalits, intellectuals, activists etc increasingly upset over the ‘overdrive’ of some Sangh Parivar outfits.Such a concocted social-political atmosphere is the right time when Opposition parties often try to get back to the political propeller. Therefore, the Congress leadership feels the timing for Rahul Gandhi’s elevation could not have been more politically ripe. “When the 2013 Jaipur AICC session elected Rahul Gandhi as Congress vice-president, it was clearly done keeping in mind a road-map for the transition in leadership. We are confident that the process will be completed when Rahulji takes over the party mantle at the culmination of the Congress organisational elections in a few weeks’ time. Sonia Gandhiji will, of course, play the role of the party’s mentor and guide. And as the people of this country are now feeling betrayed by the shallow promises and all-round economic mismanagement of the Modi government, trust the Congress party under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership to lead the fight and make the PM and BJP accountable for their mistakes,” said Anand Sharma, Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.There is a time-tested desi theory of political gravity which commands the abiding faith of all those seasoned politicians in the business of experimenting with power as well as in search of political forgiveness and electoral redemption –– that no political high-ride can last smoothly forever. Similarly, no crash-landing can be permanently crippling in the periodical love-hate reflexes of Indian voters.Having ruled this country for half-a-century, and having found ways to return to Raisina Hills after each time the Grand Old Party was thrown out of power — from Indira Gandhi’s and Rajiv Gandhi’s pinnacle of electoral success and from Narasimha Rao’s “Chanakya Vyuha” — the perennially hopeful Congress camp believes that even the party’s post-2014 meltdown can be nursed back with time, political imagination and a lot of luck.“The more this BJP government disappoints the people, the more they will turn to the Congress as the natural party of governance. Mind you, Congress remains the default system of Indian politics that nobody can wish it away. Indians’ electoral history stands testimony to this fact,” quipped a CWC member.Notwithstanding the theoretical confidence rooted in history, many in the party are also aware that Gandhi and the party now face unprecedented existential crisis and political challenges, especially when pitted against the entirely different ballgame of Modi/Amit Shah-led BJP. The Congress camp also knows that Rahul Gandhi carries an image issue –– partly of his own making due to his once-fashionably projected “power-is-poison” brand, self-defeating reluctance, aloofness, apolitical experiments, dithering on decision-making etc. This is also partly due to BJP’s social media warriors’ clinical ‘trash-the-rival-future captain’ tactical work of lampooning him as ‘Yuvraj’, ‘Pappu’ etc –– a digital re-run of the pre-social media trashing of the “foreign-origin Sonia”.But, many party leaders argue that the bad run of Gandhi and the Congress has now touched the nadir and they can only climb up the graphs just as the popularity of Modi and BJP have peaked to saturation and it can now only begin to drop.“This entire plot to constantly put Rahul Gandhi in bad light is no more working. It was easy to defeat us in 2014 because of 10 long years’ incumbency burden. Narendra Modi won the election by making all kinds of promises, especially to youth, women, poor and middle-class, which by now he has not only failed to deliver. By now, people have realised that predictions made by Rahulji, be it on the perils of joblessness, demonetisation, flawed GST –– all have been proved right,” said the young Congress MP Sushmita Dev.Incidentally, Congress has now reinforced its efforts to match the fire of BJP on social media with a dedicated social media team across the country. They are now putting across Gandhi’s and Congress’ counter perspective and highlighting the “failures of the Modi government”.Many social media watchers feel it is no more a one-way traffic but a two-way battle for setting perceptions. “It was Rahulji’s idea that the Congress should consciously increase our presence in the social-digital media space by putting across, in a transparent way, our alternative perspective. Rahulji’s core message to us is to always put out the truth because the truth prevails over BJP’s falsehoods ultimately,” said Divyaspandana, head of Congress digital-social media wing.As Rahul Gandhi readies for the plunge, he also has to first pass an internal test to prove his leadership, organisational and political acumen, especially in rebuilding the Congress in many states where it has been decimated and putting up an impressive show in the upcoming Assembly polls enroute the next Lok Sabha polls. This is especially so since most of his solo initiatives since 2013 such as electioneering in Youth Congress, distancing himself from senior leaders and cosying up to theoreticians, lightweight ‘Congress converts’, ‘commercial election strategists’ and NGO specialists, have boomeranged. It had also created internal tension as most of the battle-hardened senior organisational leaders of the Congress (who propelled the Sonia Gandhi era), being the products of the Indira-Sanjay school of realpolitik, could not stomach such a bookish approach.In many ways, that phase of Rahul has been strikingly similar to the approach of Rajiv Gandhi during his prime ministership when he propped up the “Doon school boys’ and alienated many seniors, even trashing them as “power brokers” before meeting electoral defeat. “In fact, Rajiv ji had politically matured a great deal after the 1989 defeat and he was clearly emerging a much realistic and seasoned politician…Hopefully Rahul ji’s elevation, after the learning sessions, will prove to be his productive second coming,” whispered a Congress old-timerThe past many months saw Gandhi leading an effort, in consultations with many seniors, to harmonise the internal equations through a give-and-take collective leadership-team to face the Modi-led BJP team. This marks a balancing act –– acknowledging the wisdom in retaining many with wealth of experience and the need to empower the younger future team. “There is room for both seniors and youngsters in the party. Yet, with most senior party leaders now in their late 60s or 70s, it is an occupational hazard to empower a younger team for the inevitable generational shift,” said a party functionary.On the one side, Gandhi has agreed to downgrade his once favourite leaders such as Mohan Prakash, Madhusudan Mistry and Ashok Chaudhary. Alongside seniors such as Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kamalnath, Digvijaya Singh, AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Janardan Dwivedi...etc, a younger line comprising KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Avinash Pandey, Deepak Babaria have been lined up in the leadership. Girish Chodankar, RPN Singh, Rajiv Satav, Zubair Khan, K Raju, Subhankar Sarkar, Prakash Joshi ...etc are also being groomed at AICC.Further, while backing Sachin Pilot as Rajasthan PCC chief and Jitendra Singh in his future list, senior Ashok Gehlot has been promoted as AICC General Secretary just as SK Shinde is. A second line is promoted in Balasaheb Thorat, Amit Deshmukh etc in Ashok Chavan-led Maharasahtra PCC. Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Deepender Singh Hooda are being promoted while acknowledging the utility of Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana just as Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kuljit Singh Nagra, Vijay Inder Singla are being empowered while accepting Captain Amarinder Singh’s supremacy in Punjab.Pritam Singh marked generational shift in Uttarakhand Congress as Ghulam Ahmad Mir in J&K PCC. Along with Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhvadia, Solanki-Tushar Chowdhary, Satyajit Gaikwad are being promoted in Gujarat. Gandhi’s pick between Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia as PCC chief will dictate the internal equations in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh Congress.“But it is for the younger ones to show they can match political wherewithal and survival skills of the seniors in the dog-eat-dog world of Congress politics,” said a party MP. The Virbhadra-Sukhu tussle in Himachal is a classic example. While Sonia Gandhi leads Congress’ coalition outreach, Rahul has also started bonding with leaders of like-minded Opposition parties for establishing compatibility in coalition politics.What is certain is that once Rahul Gandhi takes over the mantle, the Congress will tilt to a more deeper “pro-poor welfare programmes-oriented political-policy’ turn - while stressing its continuing commitment to economic reforms - as Gandhi is known to be firm believer in Indira Gandhi’s pro-poor pitch and, a keen observer of the New Labour of thev UK.A senior leader recited a mantra to drive home the bottom-line of Gandhi’s real inhouse challenge: “Aisi koi dhvani nahi jo mantr na ho, aisa koi paudha nahin jisme aushadhi na ho, Koi manushya aayogya nahin, kami hai to keval yogya banane wale ki” (‘there is no sound that is not a mantra, no plant that is not medicinal, there is no person unworthy, what is lacking is an ‘enabler’). It meant, in the current Congress context, the real test will be whether Gandhi can rise to the task of being the igniter of the now dormant Congress potential. The new Congress President will be closely watched.