Rahul rises, leads the charge as LoP

Congress leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s maiden speech in the joint sitting of Parliament on Monday where he was seen at his combative best signals his advent on the political firmament as the redoubtable avatar in the role of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP).

One who was seen applying the ointment of inclusivity with his soothing tongue during the two cross-country yatras, Rahul was seen embracing his new role with the gift of the gab and sparing no element—satire, assertiveness, emotions, humour, persuasion—of speech in declaring that he was no reluctant prince or the derogatory pappu that his principal adversary Narendra Modi would refer to him, and was ready to take on him at every level.

With the BJP downsized in its parliamentary might and Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing severely diminished, there is all the hint in the air of debates in the two houses regaining all the robustness they earlier had.

The BJP, the spearhead of the ruling coalition, may have to prepare itself for facing a more balanced political landscape after having enjoyed a decade without a strong and united opposition. Rahul will no longer be the pushover having convincingly won seats from both the Hindi heartland and interior South, both with majorities that amount to more than twice that Mr. Modi could manage from Varanasi.

The anticipated victory of Priyanka Gandhi from Wayanad may only sharpen the INDIA bloc’s edge against the subdued treasury benches.It has been a hard ascent for Rahul what with a series of upsetting defeats during the last two decades.

Having been the butt of jokes, sneers, hate and insults from his now humbled rivals, he has bounced back with Congress making deep forays into the core of the Hindutva party’s fort once thought to be impregnable.

And he did this amid media frenzy and cacophony about 400-plus seats and in an environment of paranoia built by a handmaiden media’s unprecedented lionizing of the man leading the coalition now.The last two decades have been immensely transformative for Rahul Gandhi in developing a winsome persona.