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election 2018
Mandate

delivering in the polls. In state after state, he has put in
place robust organisational machinery for publicising
the government schemes, carrying out political pro-
grammes and making full use of social media to reach
out to voters.
Shah has been of a firm view that Hindutva com-
bined with the BJP’s hardcore nationalism agenda
would give the saffron party a distinct identity. And
he proved right. Surely the opposition had no ammu-
nition to raise questions on Ayodhya. In 2019 general
elections, leading from the front, Shah held over 161
rallies and visited over 312 Lok Sabha seats, clocking
over 1.58 lakh km, more than any other leader. Amit
Shah has earned the enviable epithet of being named
the new-age Chanakya, after the prolific scholar,
statesman, strategist, philosopher, economist and ad-
viser to the Mauryan empire in 4th Century BC, who
has till date, remained an enigmatically inspirational
character for political pundits and strategists. Shah’s
Chanakya-Niti is about putting into practice what
Chanakya preached. Chanakya ended the concept
of the king as a demi-god and has always had strong
reservations about ‘parivarwad’ culture or dynastic
politics. Chanakya was of the view that if a king has
only one child who is not mature enough to rule, the
reins of the state should then be passed on to some-
one from outside, someone who is capable of it. Shah,
by reinforcing what Chanakya said, brilliantly shifted
the political narrative to dynastic politics hitting the
Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. The results show how accu-
rate the tragedy of Amit Shah was and he rightly earns
the epithet of modern-day Chanakya.

Congress sans gandhis poll rout. Ironically as they say history repeats itself
With the Congress’s second devastating defeat in because of way back in 2014, after the Modi wave deci-
the Lok Sabha elections, the party must answer a mated the Grand Old Party, the then Congress chief
key question: can it afford to continue with dynastic Sonia Gandhi and then vice-president Rahul had of-
politics as usual? At the Congress Working Committee fered to resign as president and vice-president of
meeting held on May 25, party president Rahul Gan- the party. The Congress Working Committee had not
dhi offered his resignation, which as expected was only rejected the offer but also reposed faith in their
rejected by the committee. Two days later, rumours leadership. What was different this time was Rahul’s
circulated that he had refused to withdraw his resig- tough talk as he targeted certain senior leaders for
nation and urged party colleagues to look for a new putting the interests of their sons ahead of the inter-
non-Gandhi family chief. A report by BHARAT HITeSHI est of the party. He named the Chief Ministers Ashok
Will Rahul Gandhi’s resignation solve the Congress Gehlot and Kamal Nath and former Finance Minister
problems? It may not but it could be the beginning of P Chidambaram. Taking an uncompromising stand,
Congress sans Gandhi family. Beginning of Congress Rahul also asked the CWC to choose a new leader
is bereft of dynastic politics. It is known to everyone from outside the Gandhi family. He spurned the sug-
that BJP hit Congress hard for following dynastic gestion that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could be elevated
politics. Of course, on paper, Congress party elects as party president and said that he was in favour of a
its president in a democratic way but the party has non-Gandhi to head the party. The offer of resigna-
to involve party workers at the grass root level in tion by Rahul Gandhi was unanimously turned down.
the process. The offer to quit party president’s post Gandhi or no Gandhi, it is the job of Congress to come
has caught the party unawares as Rahul Gandhi has out of the mess and pessimism that has gripped it af-
owned total responsibility for the 2019 Lok Sabha ter the poll debacle.

tehelka / 15 June 2019 17 www.tehelka.com