Only Sonia, Rahul, Ahmed and Soni set party strategy
They are a quartet, but cannot be called a "gang of four". And they control the congress. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, as the Congress president, is the leader of the party and this quartet. And the remaining three leaders of the quartet are Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, Mr Ahmed Patel and Ms Ambika Soni.
According to most party activists, no one besides these four leaders, not even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is privy to the party strategy.
Being Mrs. Gandhi's son, the Amethi MP is the heir apparent, and Mr Patel and Ms Soni are the congress president's eyes and ears. Mr Patel is the political secretary to the Congress president, the post earlier occupied by Mrs. Soni, who now dons many hats. She is also in-charge of all-powerful congress president's office.
After Dr. Singh was sworn in as the prime Minister, the Congress president insisted on a clear demarcation between the party and the government. So, no one in the government, including the Prime Minister, has any clue about the party strategy.
Mrs. Gandhi might publicly insist that the party is more important than the government (as the government comes from the party), this seems to be for public consumption. Her main priority at present to ensure that the power arrangement in New Delhi- the congress-led UPA coalition-lasts its full term. She is the chairperson of the UPA, NAC and the CPP and seems to have no time for the party issues.
Her lack of time for the party has led to rise of nomination culture ion the organization as reflected in the elections of the PCC presidents and office-bearers of the congress Party in Parliament. The Congress is out of power in about a dozen major states and is a minor player in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Forget common people who have no access to either Ms. Gandhi or her son Rahul due to their heavy security, even Congress ministers are complaining that they cannot easily approach Mrs Gandhi's three lieutenants.
The core group of congress leaders meets once a week. However, this exercise has neither strengthened the UPA nor the Congress.
Senior Congress leaders are slowly
becoming "senior citizen", while some middle-rung leaders are not allowing
their peers to carve their own identities in the party hierarchy.