Opposition Breakfast to Cycle Protest: Script Behind Rahul Gandhi's Recent Moves

Of late, Rahul Gandhi has become more proactive in reaching out to other Opposition parties, especially outside UPA

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi held a breakfast meeting with members of several Opposition parties on Tuesday 3 August and after the meeting he rode a bicycle to Parliament to protest against the fuel price hike.

"Our names and faces aren't important. What's important is that we reflect the agony of crores of Indians suffering due to price rise," Gandhi is reported to have said.

The meeting comes barely a week after Gandhi went on a tractor to Parliament in solidarity with farmers protesting the Narendra Modi government's farm laws.

There is a pattern to these efforts by Gandhi. They seem to be driven by a broader strategy to improve his acceptability as the main Opposition face against the BJP.

There are two aspects to this.

1. RAHUL GANDHI'S FIRST MAJOR OUTREACH OUTSIDE THE UPA

Rahul is no doubt the most popular leader within the Congress and also enjoys acceptability among key allies like DMK, RJD and JMM. However, he has kept a distance with other Opposition parties. The equation with these entities has been led by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and managed by senior Congress leaders acting as emissaries.

It is significant that Rahul Gandhi is now trying to anchor these efforts and Tuesday's breakfast meet was a major step in that direction.

Last month, he had been part of another meeting with Opposition MPs. There was a slight difference between that meeting and Tuesday's breakfast. The earlier meeting was a smaller one and Rahul preferred to remain on the sidelines and let other Opposition parties have their say. Tuesday's breakfast meet was Rahul's show and was meant to showcase him as the face of a united Opposition face.

The Congress managed to secure the attendance of parties that have broadly been on its side in the past few months. Besides UPA constituents like DMK, RJD, JMM, IUML and KCM, the meeting also included representatives from prominent Opposition parties like the TMC, Samajwadi Party, CPI(M) and CPI besides the Congress' non-UPA ally in Maharashtra - the Shiv Sena. These also happen to be parties that have been signatories to joint letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on key issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and the farm laws.

Parties like Aam Aadmi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party - which are trying to project an equidistance from both Congress and BJP - stayed away.

A few others like the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen were not invited by the Congress, though it isn't clear if this was due to ideological differences or the number of MPs.

2. SELECTION OF ISSUES: PEGASUS, PRICE RISE AND FARM LAWS

A major issue that has both compelled a section of the Opposition to come together and also put Rahul Gandhi at the centre stage, is the Pegasus snooping row.

The alleged invasion of privacy of Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Abhishek Banerjee, HD Kumaraswamy and strategist Prashant Kishor has created a sense of urgency in the Opposition. In particular, it seems to have brought Congress and TMC closer together as is evident from West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's recent meetings with top Congress leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

However, there is an interesting nuance in the way different issues are being used. While Pegasus has become an important plank for the Opposition to join forces - be it through the breakfast meeting or in Parliament, Rahul's public protests have been on price rise (on a cycle) and farmers protests (on a tractor). This strategy seems to be empirically driven as price rise and farmers' protest as issues have far greater traction among the public than the Pegasus row.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

The increased proactiveness of Rahul Gandhi is also visible in recent appointments within the Congress such as the new Pradesh Congress chiefs: Navjot Singh Sidhu in Punjab, A Revanth Reddy in Telangana and K Sudhakaran in Kerala. It can also be seen in the consultation-driven Cabinet reshuffle being carried out in Rajasthan for which Ajay Maken, a key member of Rahul's team, is the main pointsperson.

There's another development that is unfolding - the possibility of strategist Prashant Kishor joining the Congress in an important capacity, perhaps as general secretary in-charge for election strategy. It is quite likely that Kishor's inputs have played a role in Rahul Gandhi's recent activity.

All these point towards one thing - Congress is in for a major overhaul in the immediate future. This may or may not mean that Rahul Gandhi returns as Congress president, but it is clear that he is the driving force behind this overhaul.

While some Congress leaders may disagree with the nature of the changes and some may lose influence, but there may be hardly anyone in the party who would dispute the need for such an overhaul.

Convincing other Opposition leaders to back Rahul Gandhi may be slightly more tricky. While DMK, RJD and JMM have accepted Rahul Gandhi's leadership even earlier, it may not be that easy to get parties like TMC and SP to do the same. It is also not clear how comfortable allies like NCP and Shiv Sena would be with the idea of Rahul Gandhi as a PM face.

The other problem is that Gandhi has been the de-facto challenger to PM Modi for much of the past seven years. And except for a brief while in 2018, Modi has consistently had a healthy lead over Gandhi in every survey, indicating a major gap in the popularity of the two. The gap is particularly wide in the Hindi belt and Western India.

It remains to be seen if a repackaged, PK-advised Rahul Gandhi and an overhauled Congress would be sufficient to close that gap.