The muted celebrations that marked Rahul Gandhi’s election as President of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Monday were matched by the grim determination with which the principal Opposition party is trying to start its political revival by unseating the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

Gandhi was elected unopposed as 89 nomination papers submitted by several State units and senior leaders proposing him as the next President were found valid.

The Chairman of the Congress’s central election authority, Mullappally Ramachandran, said the certificate of election will be handed over to Gandhi on December 16, two days after the last phase of Gujarat polls. The Amethi MP will succeed his mother Sonia Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi takes charge at a time when the Congress has literally hit rock bottom in terms of political viability and structural depletion. As things stand, the Congress is in the third position or worse in 10 States, effectively losing the chance of winning elections and forming governments and losing its grip in an overwhelming 320 Lok Sabha seats.

After its rout in the 2014 general elections, the Congress lost in successive State elections while the BJP, expanded its base from the Hindi heartland to the North East and South and consolidated its presence in Western States.

After a humiliating defeat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections this year, Gandhi has been engaged in reshaping the Congress’s strategy in the ongoing Gujarat assembly elections.

He has achieved a modicum of success in aligning with resurgent forces such as the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samity (PAAS) and its leader Hardik Patel while focusing the campaign on issues such as crop prices, the impact of demonetisation and GST on small industry, jobless growth etc.

The fifth-generation Nehru-Gandhi has already been mocked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as perpetrating “Aurangzeb Raj”.

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