If 2009 has been a landmark year in the attempt of the Congress to re-establish itself as India's pre-eminent party, the year also marked Sonia Gandhi’s transformation from reluctant political debutante to consummate practitioner of realpolitik.
Gandhi's maturity as a politician was in evidence soon after the Lok Sabha elections. Buoyed by the results, party leaders in Maharashtra led by Vilas Deshmukh and central leaders like All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Digvijay Singh went public with their demand that the party junk the Nationalist Congress Party and fight the assembly elections alone.
But Gandhi did not share this overconfidence. She analysed, correctly, that the Congress needed an alliance to retain power in Maharashtra and quietly reassured a harried Sharad Pawar, saying: "This is politics. Such things happen. You are our ally in Maharashtra." The assembly election results on October 22 bore out her judgement.
As opposed to her Maharashtra strategy, Gandhi went it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls, contrary to the advice of panic-stricken Congress leaders who urged her to sew up a deal with the Samajwadi Party.
"For far too long have we depended on others. It’s time we stood on our own feet," she told a senior Uttar Pradesh Congress politician who tried to persuade her to accept the Samajwadi Party’s offer of a paltry 17 seats.
Gandhi also employed cold judgement on Bihar and Jharkhand. She has remained unmoved by a repentant Lalu Prasad's repeated pledges of loyalty in return for an alliance in the two states. "She remains very fond of the RJD chief but realises that the Congress party’s interest lies in staying alone," said a former AICC general secretary in charge of Bihar.
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