The lone crusader

TILL Priyanka’s limited entry on the election scene, Rahul Gandhi was the only general who fought the battle for the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. Though the Congress has many leaders—and some of them travelled around the country to campaign too—they were not in demand by the candidates fighting the elections. The reason was that they failed to attract crowds. Their speeches were marked by thin attendance wherever they went to woo voters. To make matters worse, the media just focused on the main players like Modi and Rahul and, to a large extent, ignored the other leaders of any political party. There was yet another reason. A top Congress leader told gfiles that the ruling party always fought elections led by the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the Defence Minister, and the Finance Minister. Their job in every election was to highlight the achievements of the government. But, in this election, all top leaders are in mute mode. So, how could the Congress make any impact on the ground?