Rahul Gandhi 1.0 (March 2004 to March 2015)

Rahul Gandhi 2.0 (April 2015 to November 2017)

Rahul 3.0 (Since December 2017)

Began the three day Navsarjan Yatra in Gujarat with darshan at Dwarkadhish Temple https://t.co/PkFz0s3Z7v — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) 1506326117000

NEW DELHI: The 2019 Lok Sabha election results have dealt the strongest ever blow to Congress president Rahul Gandhi . After briefly registering victories in the three Hindi heartland states last year, he has lost the biggest electoral battle of his political career so far.The Congress is likely to improve its 2014 tally of 44 Lok Sabha seats to just over 50 out of the total 543 constituencies this time around.Rahul Gandhi reinvented himself twice in the last 15 years. In his latest avatar, he reinvented himself to take on the mighty juggernaut of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah .The three versions of Rahul Gandhi roughly coincide with the three positions he has held in the party - general secretary, vice-president and president which is holding currently.In his latest form, he gave hope to the Congress and its supporters. However, even this has not helped neither him nor the Congress party.This is how Rahul Gandhi evolved over the years.Rahul Gandhi in his first avatar made an entry into politics 15 years ago in March 2004. The same year he contested his first Lok Sabha elections from Amethi and won.In September 2004, he was appointed Congress general secretary by his mother Sonia Gandhi who was the party president. And in January 2013, he was elevated to the vice-president’s post in a party meet held at Jaipur.Among all the three versions, Rahul Gandhi’s first version was the longest - about 11 years. These were his years of apprenticeship and learning the ropes of politics.In this period, he sought to experiment with his party and attempted to overhaul it. As in charge of the party students’ wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) and youth wing Indian Youth Congress (IYC), he introduced democratic elections in these two sub-organisations. However, he met with resistance or subversion. His experiments seems to have failed as he dropped the idea of elections in the party.It also saw Rahul Gandhi in the angry young man’s role. While delivering his public speeches, he would shout, keep rolling his kurta sleeves up while repeatedly addressing the audience as "bhaiya".He was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in village Bhatta Parsaul in May 2011 - during BSP supremo Mayawati’s regime - while he was supporting the cause of farmers who were demanding higher compensation package for the acquisition of their land for a highway project.In this phase, Rahul Gandhi was an idealist by his actions, or at least he appeared to be one.Once in an election rally in UP in February 2012, Rahul Gandhi tore a piece of paper to convey the message that the list of the BSP and SP consisting of promises were useless.Similarly, he even came down heavily on his own UPA government led by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh over an ordinance to negate the Supreme Court order on disqualifying convicted MPs and MLAs. This was the order under which RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, convicted in the fodder scam, was disqualified from contesting elections.Talking about the ordinance in a press conference in the Press Club of India in the national capital, Rahul Gandhi had said, "My opinion on the ordinance is that it is complete nonsense. I think it should be torn up and thrown out."In this phase, when the UPA baton was in Sonia Gandhi’s hands, the Congress-led alliance won both the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections. However, it lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.In the next one year, the Congress’s fortunes further dipped and it lost assembly elections in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.In this phase, Rahul Gandhi received the last setback in February 2015 when the Congress failed to even open its account in the Delhi assembly elections.Within days of the debacle in Delhi assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi went on leave to an undisclosed location. The sabbatical lasted 56 days. He returned to Delhi on April 16 from Bangkok on a Thai Airways plane.He was a changed person after his return from the holidays. Instead of being an angry young man in an activist’s role, he was seen as a witty person.Rahul Gandhi had stopped rolling his kurta sleeves. He did not repeat "bhaiya" in his speeches any more.Earlier, Rahul Gandhi would give lofty talks in public which would be beyond the comprehension of the audience. For example, he told the Dalits once to put in extra effort at Jupiter's escape velocity of 60 km per second in order to come out of the shackles of caste. Such talks earned him the mocking nickname of ‘Pappu’.However, his talks became earthy later. He started giving catchphrases which caught the imagination of one and all. For instance, he coined the phrase "Suit boot ki sarkar" when Narendra Modi had worn the monogrammed pinstripe suit during the then US President Barack Obama’s visit to India on Republic Day in 2015.From Kozhikode in Kerala, he wished the Modi government for completing one year in power on May 26, 2015 by saying "Happy Birthday suit-boot ki sarkar".He also took a jibe on Modi’s monthly radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’ and asked him to listen to "Hindustan ke Mann ki Baat" instead.Before going to the sabbatical, Rahul’s public presence was minimal. He would keep himself confined to his residence or maximum to the Congress' war room at 15, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj road.His visit even to the party headquarters at 24, Akbar Road was rare. During the massive protests in the Nirbhaya case, he was not to be seen.But he started joining protests later on. For instance, he visited Lady Hardinge Hospital where a Rajasthan farmer Gajendra Singh's body had been kept after he committed suicide at AAP's protest venue Jantar Mantar on April 22, 2015.He visited Pune on July 31, 2015 to lend support to students who were protesting against the appointment of Gajendra Singh Chauhan as Flim and Television Institute of India (FTII) chairperson.Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter with the handle of @OfficeOfRG after coming back from the sabbatical.But electorally, this transformation did not earn him much dividends. During this period, the Congress lost power in Assam, Kerala and Uttarakhand. It could not perform any better in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal assembly elections.Though the Congress became the single largest party in Goa and Manipur, the BJP pipped it to power by forging quick alliances and staking claim to form government in these two states.Though the Congress won the November 2015 Bihar assembly election, but it was the most junior partner of the magathbandhan which also comprised Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Nitish Kumar-led JDU.The Congress did get majority in only two assembly elections - Punjab and Puducherry. But in Punjab, the Congress victory hinged on the 10-year anti-incumbency wave against Parkash Singh Badal government and pro-Capt Amarinder Singh sentiments.The losses may have forced Rahul Gandhi to reinvent himself one more time.The run-up to the December Gujarat assembly saw Rahul Gandhi change his style of politics. He became more aggressive and bold.He did not shy away in levelling unfounded and unverified allegations.In this latest phase, he also became open about his religion and beliefs.He raised the Rafale deal for the first time in Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’s home state during campaigning for the state polls. While criticising demonetisation, he also labelled Goods and Services Tax (GST) as Gabbar Singh Tax.He also started playing soft Hindutva politics in BJP’s ‘Hindutva laboratory’ of Gujarat. It was a strategy to woo the Hindu voters who generally were BJP voters and compete with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the matter of religiosity.In the two-and-a-half months that he campaigned in Gujarat, Rahul visited 27 temples. The Congress won 18 seats in these constituencies where these temples were located. Moreover, out of these 18 victories, the Congress succeeded in wresting 10 seats from the BJP.However, Rahul's temple tours also raked up their share of controversies. His religion got embroiled in controversy during his visit to Somnath temple. The Congress was forced to claim that Rahul is an upper caste ‘janeudhari’ (one who wears the sacred thread) Hindu Brahmin.However, instead of adversely impacting the Congress, the row benefitted it. The Congress’s tally increased from 61 in 2012 to 77 in 2017 in the house of 182 seats. The party’s vote share also jumped from 38.95 per cent in the last election to 41.4 per cent - a rise of 2.45 per cent.On the other hand, the BJP’s seats came down from 116 in 2012 to 99 in 2017.Rahul Gandhi even went on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar in September 2018 to fulfil a pledge he made during the May 2018 Karnataka assembly elections. It was to thank Lord Shiva for surviving a possible air crash.Emboldened by the partial success in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi amplified his voice and strengthened his strategy in the future elections in other states and also in the just-concluded 2019 Lok Sabha elections.His speeches became more shrill.He experimented his new strategy next in May 2018 Karnataka assembly elections. The refrain, as in the Gujarat polls, was jobs for youths, agrarian distress, demonetisation, GST and Rafale.He promised loan waiver to farmers of Karnataka.The aggressive campaigning did help the Congress. Despite the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah suffering from anti-incumbency mood, the BJP could not win a majority.Despite trying its best, the BJP failed to form government in Karnataka. The Congress and Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) [JDS] formed a post-poll alliance and formed government.This was followed by the Monsoon session of Parliament last year which turned out to be eventful.During the debate on no-confidence, Rahul Gandhi claimed that French President Emmanuel Macron had informed him that there was no secrecy clause regarding the price of the 36 Rafale fighter jets being bought by India in flyaway condition.However, the French government issued an official statement within hours of Rahul’s claims. It countered him and confirmed that there indeed was a secrecy pact between India and France.The session also saw Rahul Gandhi embracing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shortly winking in the house.He raised his pitch over Rafale deal in the November-December 2018 elections in five states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram - particularly in the three Hindi heartland states where the Congress defeated the BJP in straight fights.The catchphrases such as the ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ which used to be sarcastic turned caustic and bordered on the line of being derogatory. He coined ‘chowkidar chor hai’ to demolish Narendra Modi.It was in one of his election rallies at Dungarpur in Rajasthan on September 20, 2018 that Rahul Gandhi coined the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ jibe against PM Modi .He said, "Gali gali mein shor hai, Hindustan ka chowkidar chor hai."In the three states, he also promised that the Congress governments would waive the farmers’ loans within 10 days of coming to power.These worked wonders for him and the Congress won the three Hindi heartland states,In the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi added the Nyay (Nyuntam Aay Yojana or the Minimum Income Guarantee scheme) - promising Rs 6,000 each to 20 per cent poorest households - to his election speeches. Nyay was later included in the Congress’s election manifesto.He also promised to fill 22 lakh government jobs within one year of coming to power at the Centre. His temple run-spree besides attack on demonetisation and GST continued even in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.Rahul Gandhi’s style would have worked in the assembly elections in Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh but it fell flat in the Lok Sabha polls .Whether in Karnataka or in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the respective governments could not completely fulfil the farm loan waiver promise. This was highlighted by Narendra Modi in his election speeches.Rahul Gandhi made ‘chowkidar chor hai’ his election catchphrase. Modi, his ministerial colleagues, BJP leaders and supporters sought to turn the tables on Rahul by prefixing ‘chowkidar’ to their names.He had to eat humble pie for attributing ‘chowkidar chor hai’ jibe to the Supreme Court.Rahul Gandhi’s made gargantuan efforts to make the Rafale deal Modi’s ‘Bofors’. He sought to do what VP Singh had done to his father Rajiv Gandhi over Bofors.However, going by the BJP's preformance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi's allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal could not cut ice with the voters.The Nehru-Gandhis’ previous record of not fulfilling promises of exorcising poverty right from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to Manmohan Singh’s government under Sonia Gandhi’s watch may have made Rahul’s Nyay promise unbelievable.Congress’s failure in stitching alliances under Rahul Gandhi also proved disastrous. It could have forged many more alliances, such as with the SP, BSP in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and Sharad Pawar-led NCP in Gujarat but it failed to seize the opportunities.It was a do or die battle for Rahul Gandhi. However, he has failed to turn the fortunes of the Congress. It may be time for him to change to version 4.0.