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With the alliance narrative slipping, Rahul Gandhi is placing his bets on the SIR fight and caste census to rebuild the Congress on his own terms
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (Image: PTI/File)
Is Congress leader Rahul Gandhi working on yet another revival plan for his party? Those around him say he does have a script in mind. The first step taken was to accept that the INDIA bloc story is virtually over. In fact, this fits into his original line of thinking where, differing from his mother Sonia Gandhi, he felt the Congress needed to carve out its own identity, which would be diluted if it remained tied down by coalition politics.
For Rahul Gandhi, coalition dharma has meant repeated compromises. One of the big examples is when he had to swallow his own words on the controversial ordinance he had said should be “torn up”. He eventually backtracked after Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav objected to his stance.
More recently, he had to again step back when Maharashtra leaders such as NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray objected to his attacks on Veer Savarkar in the middle of the state polls.
Breaking Free From Coalition Compulsions
It is against this backdrop that Rahul Gandhi and his close group now sense a degree of “breaking free”. Armed with two key issues, he believes the Congress can finally move beyond the compulsions of the INDIA bloc and allow him to follow his own political instincts. His fight against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and his push for a caste census are the twin cards he hopes to use to power a revival of the party.
With the SIR and the “vote chori” campaign, Rahul Gandhi is directly questioning the electoral process itself and, by extension, the winning streak of the BJP. Inside the Congress, this line also serves another purpose: it is being used to silence and reassure voices that have begun to question the party’s long list of electoral defeats.
Rahul Gandhi and his group are pinning the blame on the Election Commission, arguing that it is not that the Congress is losing, but that the BJP is “stealing” victories.
As the possibility of exits from the party looms large, his immediate challenge is to stem the flow. The “vote chori” campaign is one way his camp is trying to address this crisis of confidence.
Caste Census As The Second Pillar
The other pillar of his strategy is the caste census. Through this, Rahul Gandhi hopes to bring back Dalit and OBC voters who have shifted from the Congress to parties such as the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. By pitching himself as a champion of the backwards and the downtrodden, he is aiming not only to take on the BJP but also to outmanoeuvre several of his INDIA bloc allies on the same turf.
In Rahul Gandhi’s current political playbook, these two issues — SIR and caste census — are the main instruments he hopes will lift the Congress out of decline and allow him to redefine both his own role and the party’s identity on his terms.
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als…Read More
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als… Read More
November 21, 2025, 15:26 IST
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