Congress may be led by a non-Gandhi politico, says Chidambaram - Livemint

Chidambaram has urged the leadership to be more communicative about the Congress’s agenda. Photo: Bloomberg

New Delhi: Former finance minister P. Chidambaram has said what was once unthinkable for a Congress leader to voice publicly: a non-Gandhi politician could take over in the future from party president Sonia Gandhi .

The former finance minister’s remarks, flashed by NDTV 24X7 news channel, follow another electoral rout for the Congress, in the 15 October assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana where it finished third after ruling the states for 15 and 10 years, respectively.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in the Maharashtra assembly. It also won power in Haryana for the first time, winning a majority.

“It is a strategic design by P. Chidambaram and the Congress party to divert attention of the people from the Gandhi family,” Bidyut Chakrabarty , a political science professor at Delhi University, said about Chidambaram’s comments on a non-Gandhi politician’s possible rise to the party presidency.

“Congress has lost the election in Maharashtra and Haryana, and it doesn’t want the blame to be on Gandhi family,” Chakrabarty said.

To be sure, in the interview to be aired later on Friday, Chidambaram reiterated that Sonia Gandhi was the undisputed leader of the Congress. He, however, urged the leadership to be more communicative about the Congress’s agenda.

“I would urge Sonia and Rahul (Gandhi) to speak more to the media and the public...Congress morale is low, the leadership must respond urgently...” Chidambaram said.

Rahul Gandhi is the vice-president of the Congress party and also the political heir apparent to his mother Sonia Gandhi.

Chidambaram’s comments come against the backdrop of the Congress party’s worst-ever performance in a general election. In the election concluded in May, the Congress won only 44 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The BJP won the election with 282 seats, becoming the first party in 30 years to win a majority on its own.

The Congress’s spectacular defeat was attributed to alleged corruption, as well as its inability to communicate to the electorate the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s achievements in its 10-year reign.

Chidambaram also defended the party against recent insinuations that some leaders may figure in a list of Swiss bank account holders who had allegedly stashed black money.

He said if Congress politicians indeed figure in the list, the reason could be individual transgressions. “It is not the party but individuals who will be embarrassed,” he said.

Chidambaram said the Narendra Modi government had done nothing new to uncover black money, crediting the Congress-led administration for having pushed Swiss authorities on secret bank accounts held by Indians.

His comments were in response to finance minister Arun Jaitley ’s remarks to NDTV in an interview earlier this week that one former UPA minister and some Congress leaders were among those with illegal Swiss bank accounts, according to information received recently by the Indian government.

“I didn’t ask to see the names, neither was I shown the names as finance minister. These accounts were not being kept from the party. The party did not authorize them (individuals) to keep the accounts,” Chidambaram said when asked whether he could substantiate Jaitley’s statement.

Chakrabarty agreed with the rationale, saying no political party would allow its leaders to keep illegal accounts in foreign banks.

“It is an attempt to protect the party from any allegations or any wrongdoing. At least on paper, no party can allow its members to have illegal accounts,” he said.

Slamming Jaitley, Chidambaram said that the “purpose” of the finance minister’s comments on Congress names figuring in the list was not the recovery of black money but “blackmail”.

On the performance of the 150-day old BJP-led government headed by Modi, Chidambaram he would give the government some more time before pronouncing his judgement on it.

“Micro-managing programmes, refurbishing them, the government has done well to capture the imagination of the people... I would give them time,” the former minister said.