New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi, who turned 74 on Wednesday, has chosen not to celebrate her birthday in the midst of the farmers’ agitation and the COVID-19 pandemic.
She has reached out to her party workers to be engaged with relief work instead.
The leaders of the party are pouring in with birthday wishes. “Long life to her”, Salman Khurshid said on social media; Khurshid said: “Best wishes to Hon’ble Congress President and UPA Chairperson Smt Sonia Gandhi. May she be blessed with good health.”
Sonia Gandhi, who was born in 1946 in the Italian town of Lusiana Conco, is the longest-serving President of the huge old party.
Throughout the years she has seen both highs and lows yet at this point, things are not great within the party as an internal rebellion has been raging for a while and the party has not been successful in stopping BJP’s march in all types of elections.
Individuals bringing up doubt over the Gandhi family in charge of the party has picked up momentum more than ever. However, she and her children are still the crowd pullers.
The G23, a group of 23 individuals, who wrote the notorious letter about reforms in the party isn’t relenting and has again raised their worries after the Bihar poll loss.
Sonia Gandhi additionally lost her troubleshooter Ahmed Patel because of COVID-19 only days back, and her detractors in the party have provided her some time to grief it appears.
As the Congress is preparing for polls in vital states of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu the party is additionally fighting internal rifts inside its fold.
The old guard is facing her son Rahul Gandhi’s way of working and isn’t satisfied with his decisions.
In the raging farmers’ agitation that has taken the national capital in a chokehold for quite a long time, the Congress is directed by the Chief Minister of Punjab, who is spearheading this movement. Rahul Gandhi regardless of taking an early lead during his tractor yatra is missing in the last lap.
The party is going for presidential polls soon and insiders state if Rahul Gandhi throws in his hat he may get the post unchallenged but in the event that he fields a candidate, then the post might not go uncontested.
While Sonia Gandhi who took over party initiative in 1998 and got the UPA government elected in 2004 was the most powerful individual in the nation till 2014, the party since has lost two consecutive general elections and has been decreased to a double-digit.
Party individuals have straightforwardly come out against the nomination culture and demanded election from block to the Congress Working Committee level to galvanize the party.
Suspended party spokesperson Sanjay Jha wrote in an article ahead of her birthday and tweeted: “It is a natural process of evolution, change. The once infallible Gandhi brand has become weak. It has been slow to adapt. They are no longer Congress’s magic wand. They have become their kryptonite. It is time for a change.”
