Rahul Gandhi’s Ammul Baby Effects in kerala

Sunday 15 May 2011: Rahul Gandhi’s Youth Congress has not fared well in the Assembly elections, especially in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This has raised the question on whether his brand and strategy is working at all.

In Tamil Nadu, all of the nine Youth Congress nominees lost and in Kerala, out of the 18 nominees, only six have won. Over the last one year, Rahul has concentrated on the South, which, at one point was considered the Congress monopoly.

In both Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Rahul’s visits were frequent and the membership drive was huge with over half a million in Kerala and around 14 lakh in Tamil Nadu. It’s a throwback to Bihar days where despite Rahul’s aggressive campaigning and the go-it-alone mantra, the party did worse than before.

But Congress’ support remains with Rahul.

Insiders say that the problem is that the Youth Congress and the mainstream party do not work in tandem. The complaint against Rahul’s boys is that their proximity to the young prince gives them a high and they don’t bother to work on a connect with the party, and the elders are insecure with the knowledge that one day they will be eased out. So during elections, when the two should compliment each other, they tend to work in opposite directions.

Critics say that Rahul makes good photo ops, but when it comes to election results, it’s usually a story of missed opportunities.