What Rahul Gandhi's Congress should do to face Modi Shah's BJP in 2019
On December 16, when Rahul Gandhi formally took charge as president of the Congress, his mother Sonia Gandhi had some encouraging words to prepare him for two more potential defeats in the next 48 hours after 17 in the past three years. Sonia reminded Rahul that when she became president of the party in March 1998, it was in power in just five states. "Gradually, we formed governments in nearly two dozen states," she said.
Rahul is starting with exactly the same number of states under the party's belt, though its Lok Sabha tally is more than a hundred less than in Sonia's time. But his challenges are far greater than his mother's. The unprecedented popularity and campaign chutzpah of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the micro management capabilities of Amit Shah have given the BJP not only a brute majority of 282
