The Congress party missed a big opportunity to elect a non-Gandhi as the president of the party. The party elected Sonia Gandhi as interim president two months after Rahul Gandhi resigned, owning moral responsibility for the defeat of the party. Despite strong opposition from Rahul Gandhi, the party leaders again turned back to the Gandhi family to lead the party at a time when the BJP has become the dominant party in the country. Three Congress leaders, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mukul Wasnik and Jyotiraditya Scindia, were reportedly in the running for the post. However, during the Congress Working Committee meeting, very few reportedly supported them.
Worried at the prospect of a split in the party ranks, the Congress fell back on Sonia Gandhi to lead the party. The Congress leaders should be ashamed of themselves. They are behaving more like slaves than leaders and workers of a political party. They seem to be forgetting that India has moved beyond dynastic politics. The young generation does not care about dynasts and, in fact, abhors dynastic politics. The BJP has managed to win over young voters because of this very reason. The saffron party has succeeded in portraying the Congress as a dynastic party because of the stronghold of the Gandhi family. This was a rare opportunity for the grand old party to shed that tag, but it has miserably failed in it. There are many bright young leaders in the party who deserve a shot at the Congress presidency. The decision to elect Sonia Gandhi as party president, though on an interim basis, has pushed back the Congress to another decade.