The Congress Working Committee meeting paid tribute two veterans last week, Tarun Gogoi and Ahmed Patel, both who succumbed to Covid-19-related complications. But it’s the tribute paid to Ahmed Patel that stands out, and which has a telling significance on the party’s future politics.
The CWC said, “Shri Patel’s single contribution was his unique capacity to reconcile competing aspirations and forge unity and comradeship among the leaders and members of the party. Ahmed bhai had no personal ambition. The interest of the Congress was his only interest.”
And this is what could be the beginning of the change in the party’s future politics. The party immediately appointed former minister Pawan Kumar Bansal as the treasurer of the AICC, a post also held by Ahmed Patel.
Choice may seem surprising but then the job of a treasurer is also to ensure that party funds are kept floating and coming. Not many leaders can muster the courage to call up Congress chief ministers and ask them to contribute. Not many can also decide how much should be spent and where.
Pawan Bansal is low profile but clearly enjoys the trust of the Gandhis on money matters. But would the powerful chief ministers be as ready to shell out funds as they did with Patel, will be Bansal’s biggest challenge.
But the demise of Ahmed Patel may have more important ramifications within the party. Many are speaking about the search for a replacement for Ahmed Patel. The question is ‘will Rahul’s Congress want one’? It’s an open fact that the much of the tug-of-war within the Congress in the last few years was also a noora kushti between the old veterans who had the shield of Ahmed Patel on one side and the younger members of ‘Team Rahul’ who felt the seniors would never let them grow or assert themselves.
Rajasthan being a recent example, Ashok Gehlot had the support of Ahmed Patel, and his fight against Sachin Pilot was also seen the fight between the old and the young. It’s also a fact that not many in ‘Team Rahul’ were comfortable or had the connect with Patel.
Rahul Gandhi’s struggle within the Congress was also a struggle he had with Ahmed Patel and that relations between them were at times frosty was a well known fact. Ahmed Patel never enjoyed the same camaraderie with Rahul Gandhi as he did with his mother Sonia, and it occasionally showed up.
At the CWC meeting after the Lok Sabha results of 2014, Gandhi openly accused the seniors of not siding with his slogan of “chowkidar chor hai”. Gandhi asked how many of you can put up your hand and say you were with me? Not many hands went up, some seniors folded their arms around the chest. Some who came out said we weren’t even asked before this slogan was coined.
Some young ones who were close to Rahul Gandhi said, “When your own seniors don’t support you, how do you expect the slogan to capture the mind of the voters? We feel let down by the seniors.” And inevitable it was, Ahmed bhai was seen as as the leader of the pack. Increasingly, decisions began to be taken without keeping Patel in the loop.
He would often be the last to know and his house became the meeting place of many disgruntled leaders. But each time Ahmed Patel rose above the occasion to show that the party mattered more and not his personal equations. This was evident with the CWC being called over the letter of ‘the group of 23’. As long as the crisis hit the Congress, or when government formation became a critical issue as in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, Ahmed Patel couldn’t be completely replaced. Sonia Gandhi depended on him, and therefore, the children too had to accept that Ahmed bhai‘s wisdom irreplaceable.
Despite this, the gap between Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel increasingly became too wide to bridge. So post Patel what could happen? There is unlikely to be one Ahmed Patel if Rahul Gandhi takes over as the president.
A team will be aiding him and assisting him. But more importantly, the effort of the young ‘Team Rahul’ to ease out the old guard led by Ahmed Patel will be a task, which is likely to be fulfilled. The seniors are clearly a worried lot and with no Ahmed bhai around, their time is clearly up. And it’s no coincidence that most of the letter writers are veterans and are unlikely to be viewed kindly by Rahul’s Congress.
The CWC tribute to Ahmed Patel hailing him as having no personal ambition is exactly the message to the rest of the Congress — that while Ahmed Patel may have been distanced and not enjoyed the same rapport with ‘Team Rahul’, this quality of him is what will be expected of those who take charge now. In death finally, Ahmed Patel has settled the issue of the power struggle in the Congress. The ‘Ahmed Patel era’ is over. Finally, the generation gap has been bridged and it’s time the younger ones to take charge.
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