The old unravels in Congress, but the new is yet to emerge

NEW DELHI, January 31, 2015 (Agency) “If we are as purposeless and directionless in May 2015 as we are today, people will begin to question Rahul Gandhi’s leadership,” a Congress leader had told this writer a few months ago. “Mr. Gandhi will have one year to come up with a new blueprint for the party.”Mr. Gandhi has been interacting with leaders in recent months and State units have been asked to hold brainstorming sessions on the party’s revival, ahead of the March AICC plenary sessionBut the grace period available to Mr. Gandhi seems



to be shrinking, as senior leaders, one after another, show signs of restiveness. Former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s outburst in a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi that first appeared in The Hindu on Friday took on the Gandhis directly, setting the cat among the pigeons.Recently, another former Union Minister, Krishna Tirath, had left the party to join the BJP and party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi’s reported — and later disowned — comments deviated from the party’s official position on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.