TNN
New Delhi, Dec 9: Relieved of the fears of a drubbing, Congress on Monday quickly seized on the breather to launch Rahul Gandhi as party's new mascot, claiming that he played a crucial role in party's performance.
Within hours of the Congress win in Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram, the party said that the general secretary had proved himself as an effective campaigner. "In Rajasthan and everywhere else, Rahul Gandhi has been the star attraction," chairman of party's media cell Veerappa Moily said at a media briefing.
Top sources in the party said that Moily's remarks reflected the thinking in the party to raise Rahul Gandhi's profile in the build up to the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul Gandhi was the only central leader to have campaigned in all the BJP-ruled states, though only because her sudden indisposition ruled Sonia Gandhi out for electioneering engagements till the very end.
His exertions may appear to have produced, at best, only a mixed result in an affair dominated largely by regional leaders and local issues. But the satisfying score gives the party a window to cast him for a larger role.
The party has thus far been wary of exposing what it considers to be its 'prized asset', limiting his role on tough terrains to strategic appearances. It has preferred a calibrated build up also to guard against any perception about its being keen to hand him the reins of PMO immediately.
It would have put off its plan to unveil him for bigger responsibilities, if the BJP had defeated, as the party feared at the beginning of the campaign, the Congress in Delhi. But with a flattering scorecard which can rebut the perception of Congress necessarily being on its way out, and with the apprehensions of the issues of terror and price rise hurting the party not coming true, party seems to have decided to raise his billing.
Talking to reporters, Moily declared: "This is the beginning of the BJP's decline." Verdict, Moily said, refuted the BJP propaganda that the UPA government had been soft on terror. He said that the Centre was determined to wipe out terror and recalled the previous NDA government's 'role' in aggravating it.