Why chasm between old soldiers and young brigade will prove fatal for Congress

Junior Gandhi has been severely criticised recently by many leaders mostly by old guards for debacle in Parliamentary poll as he was chief poll campaigner. Some openly took cudgel against him while some did it in diplomatic manner, but conclusion was drawn that some people mostly from oldies were hatching plan against Congress vice-president.

There must be some personal interest of both the groups, but the important question is whether congress party can afford this internal squabbling at this juncture, when Assembly elections in important states like Haryana, Maharashtra and J & K is couple of months away.

Precursor of fighting- Dwivedi and Digvijay's comment

This chasm between two groups recently came to fore after senior leaders Janardan Dwivedi and Digvijay Singh gave their statements which particularly didn't augur well within Rahul loyalists.

Dwivedi had said that a leader having age more than 60-70 should't play active role in party and rather leave it to other leaders of below age. He said this when asked about his view on what happened in BJP where senior leaders like L.K. Advani and M.M. Joshi was marginalised after doing so much for party in these years.

Interestingly, most important Congress leaders including, party chief Sonia Gandhi, A.K. Antony, Motilal Vora, Digvijaya Singh, Karan Singh, Mohsina Kidwai, Ambika Soni and R.K. Dhawan are above 65 years of age currently.

Dwivedi said, "I am not saying that they should retire but the posts which require a lot of running around and physical capacity should be held by people younger. There are other responsibilities that elder leaders can take up but they should keep away from active posts".

But in politics more than wording, people usually are interested in reading between lines.

And party leaders interpreted this according to their own convenience. Some said it was his personal view while other took as he was making ground before AICC expansion. Speculation is rife that Rahul will influx it with leaders having cut off age 45.

This is not enough when other senior leader Digvijay Singh raised question mark over Rahul's ability and attributed it to his reticent approach largely. Though this is very common as so many other leaders also did the same in recent past.

"Rahul Gandhi's silence on critical issues was also a factor leading to the party losing the war of perception (to BJP)", Singh reportedly said.

According to the First post report, recently two Rahul's aides CP Joshi and Madhusudan Mistry who are considered eyes and ears of party vice-president were dropped from the screening committees.

Both groups are exchanging barb against each others

Young brigade which is mainly of 16 AICC secretaries, appointed by Rahul Gandhi before the Lok Sabha election recently under the knife for rout in Lok Sabha poll.

But these people are saying old guards of 12 general secretaries are equally responsible for party's fiasco as they were also part of consultation process when Lok Sabha tickets were being distributed. Young brigade is of the view that Rahul can't be blamed for each and every action of the Government and seniors must learn to take the responsibility.

According to a DNA report, Rahul loyalists group of secretaries have planned to take on the old guards and for that they have met twice in last 24 hour. The report further stated that they also shot off a letter regarding the issue to all general secretaries saying think twice before blaming Gandhi heir.

"There's an attempt to create doubts about Rahul Gandhi's leadership abilities, and one ploy has been to raise the Priyanka bogey. We know the future lies with Rahul but some seniors are more worried about their own future. "Instead blaming , they should introspect within," one of the secretary said.

Lashing out at these linchpins of Gandhi family, secretary further said, that these leaders enjoyed power without any accountability and capablity of these general secretaries can be gauged from fact that many of them even can't fetch a vote.

"Rahul Gandhi is the undisputed leader of the Congress and there is no question of undermining his leadership. Ten years of anti-incumbency is not Rahul's fault", Rajiv Satav, Congress MP from Hingoli said in more assertive manner.

Rahul group has even warned old guards to either mend their ways else they will have to place up their 10 years report card which will expose their ability which they brag about.

Failed as principal Opposition in 100 days

Though it is justified that Narendra Modi Government must be asked what tangible things they did in 100 days, but why same can't be applied to principal Opposition party. Congress party fought tooth and nail to get LoP post but any point of time their high command thought that whether they deserve that post or not.

Rahul Gandhi who is either known for his 'slumber mode' or jumping to the well episode but tot for raising any valid question. Adding to this the recent one where junior Gandhi questioned Modi's indifferent attitude towards domestic politics and enjoying drum beat and all at foreign soil.

Notably, that frustration somewhere was linked with Amethi incident where Congress heir was questioned for severe power crisis.

Raising big question mark over Modi Government, Rahul said, "They made big promises but where is the result? They might have forgotten so let me remind them. They said they will change the country, bring down prices, reduce corruption. 100 days are over.

"At least begin working now. People say they have not even started working. The PM is playing drum in Japan while there is no electricity here amd prices are rising".

Survey predicts rout in coming election but that doesn't worry top command

After seeing dirty linen is being washed out in public, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said that this squabbling must end immediately.

Though other leaders are also trying hard to douse this fire by patching up between two groups but then damage has already been done . At a time when party is struggling with dissentions and other serious issues, this will surely dampen party's electrol prospect.

A survey as per Economic times report say that Congress party will have to swallow their pride once again in coming elections. The party will be routed in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand Assembly poll.

So dynasty party is really on tough wicket and top leaders should focus to strengthen the party collectively, putting their difference aside. Otherwise be ready for facing another dark spell of humiliation.