Rahul Gandhi appears not to have made much difference to the party's fortunes in the assembly elections in the state.
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, whom Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had projected as the future of Uttar Pradesh, appears not to have made much difference to the party's fortunes in the assembly elections in the state.
After vigorous campaigning by the young MP from Amethi during all seven phases of the polls, on top of his mother's electioneering, the party remained in the fourth place and managed to bag virtually the 25 seats it had in the outgoing House.
Congress leaders rubbished claims by detractors that the Gandhi family magic failed to deliver.
"Rahul will lead the party in UP in 2009 in the Lok Sabha polls," declared senior Congress leader and Union Minister Kapil Sibal, the party's campaign chief in the state.
Senior leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi blamed the lack of party organisation at the grassroots for the failure to spread the message of Rahul who, he said, had done a 'tremendous job' in galvanising workers.
AICC General Secretary Ashok Gehlot, in-charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, dismissed suggestions that Rahul has failed.
He insisted the young leader had been maintaining from day one that the Congress was fighting the elections with an eye on the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
He said Rahul had been successful in bringing to the centre-stage the issue of development in the state where the course of politics changed after being caught in the Mandal and Masjid issues.
Congress leaders including Gehlot said Rahul's roadshows checkmated the BJP, which saw a sharp decline in its fortunes despite raking up the Hindutva agenda.
Gehlot and others maintained that the Congress could not come out with flying colours as the people of Uttar Pradesh were bent on removing Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav from power and found the alternative in BSP.
A Union Minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Congress bagging over 40 seats would have meant that Rahul had been effective and any score less than this provides lessons to be learnt by the party and the young MP.
Rahul has been instrumental in deciding the party's strategy in Uttar Pradesh right from the beginning and was credited with the view that he wanted the Congress to go it alone as parts of efforts to revive it in the key state.
He had expressed his readiness at the Hyderabad plenary in January 2006 to lead the party in Uttar Pradesh if the high command so directed.
Though Rahul was not given any formal position in the state or in the AICC, PCC chief Salman Khursheed's statement that the MP was the 'face' of Congress in Uttar Pradesh was a telling comment about his role and place in the organisation.
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