This was not the case with Congress—led UPA after its ten-year stint in power (2004-14). This time Congress was lucky that the rise in its vote share translated into more seats, nearly doubling its numbers from 52 to 99. But the story goes beyond the data—and the situation has changed broadly in three ways.

First, Rahul Gandhi has taken on the Leader of Opposition (LOP) post and opted to lead the Congress from the front--unlike after earlier results. For 41 months, till Mallikarjun Kharge took over as the party chief in 2022, there was no full time President of India’s grand old party. It seemed to be waiting for Gandhi to make up his mind. After he stepped down as party President following the Congress’s 2019 debacle, Sonia Gandhi stepped in as interim President. But behind the scenes, Rahul Gandhi continued to take all major decisions.

Today, as LOP, he will deal with the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah on committees to select to Central Vigilance Commissioner and the CBI director, for example, apart from engaging the government on a host of issues. He will also need to plan the nuts and bolts of the Congress’s strategy in Parliament, ensuring that complaints against them about inaccessibility are not repeated. He has to open his doors to not just party colleagues but also leaders of INDIA parties.

The question is on Who against Modi? appears to have been settled for now. Many opposed to the NDA government now see Gandhi as the answer. While this tricky issue has not been formally addressed by the INDIA bloc, it may not need to tackle this for some time to come. Barring possibly Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress and Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, Gandhi appears to have settled into a good rapport with other chieftains, such as Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi party, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD , M K Stalin of the DMK and Uddhav Thackeray of his Shiv Sena. At the moment, most of them are occupied with retaining ground in their own states.

Gandhi is also the face of a robust Opposition in Parliament, as was visible in the first short session with the Congress MPs enjoying new space that has opened up for them following BJP’s shrunken numbers.

The recent release of INDIA partner and JMM leader Hemant Soren on bail and the possible early release of Arvind Kejriwal will act as a booster for te opposition ranks.

The third facet of the new Gandhi is his visibility on the ground, in some way an extension of his Bharat Jodo yatra. Since the Lok Sabha results came, he has paid visits to Gujarat (after some congress workers were injured in clash with the BJP), Manipur (to meet victims of the internal conflict in state), Hathras (to meet the victims of the recent stampede) Assam (to meet victims of recent floods), and Rae Bareli (his constituency, where he also visited the family of an army officer who died in Siachen): he has also met railway loco pilots to talk about their workers conditions, after recent accident . He is on the move and to the politically important places..He is acting as the shadow Prime Minister. That is what matters in his fight against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rahul is 20 years younger to the PM Modi. He is better placed to symbolize the aspirations of an emerging India. His political performance in the next few years will be crucial in determining the course of his political destiny. (IPA Service)