Newsmaker of the year: Evolution of Rahul Gandhi, from political novice to primary challenger
Rahul Gandhi strides into the meeting room at his bungalow in Tughlaq Lane in Lutyens' Delhi. He is wearing a Christmas-red turtle-neck sweater and a black sleeveless down jacket. He has again reverted to wearing a scraggly, greying beard. In another room, half-a-dozen Congress spokespersons wait to have an interaction with him. They are being prepped for the outcome of the day's debate in Parliament and to engage in a slugfest with their BJP counterparts on prime time television later that evening. The aggression his partymen show reflects Rahul's belief in giving his opponents as good as he gets. And how he is transforming the moribund Grand Old Party.
It's been just a little over a year since Rahul took over as president of the Congress, but he has already attained the stature of a leader who has arrived. That's because, thanks to his untiring effort, 2018 brought plenty of sunshine to dispel the gloom that had enveloped the Congress party ever since its drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha election when its seat strength fell to 44. Rahul has led from the front all through the year. He made 50 tours to 17 states, including eight poll-bound ones. He relentlessly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on four key electoral issues the agrarian crisis, the flailing economy, unemployment and the Rafale fighter jets deal. He has unleashed a social media war on the BJP, inventing new phrases such as chowkidar chor hai, which have stuck. He grabbed centre stage in a Lok Sabha debate by hugging a nonplussed prime minister in the full glare of TV cameras to show that he didn't treat his opponents as enemies.
Now, with three creditable victories in the Hindi heartland under the Congress belt and having outmanoeuvred the BJP in forming a coalition government in Karnataka, the party is showing signs of a dramatic resurgence. It has also catapulted Rahul to new prominence as the prime challenger to Narendra Modi for the 2019 general election. The significance of the three victories can be gauged from the fact that, in 2014, the BJP won 62 of the 65 Lok Sabha seats spread across these states. On a personal front, he has emerged as a leader with cross-party acceptance the DMK's Stalin sees him as
