AFTER the results of India’s 2014 parliamentary elections were announced, a group of agitated Congress workers gathered outside the party office in New Delhi. Some people thought they were going to demand the resignation of the mother-son duo (party president Sonia Gandhi and the No. 2 Rahul Gandhi) responsible for the party’s worst drubbing in its history. No, they were demanding Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul’s sister, too be brought into active politics. They thought Priyanka who is more charismatic and more energetic could rejuvenate the party.

Nothing revealed the relationship between India’s grand old party and Nehru-Gandhi family better than this spectacle of Congress workers waving posters, which read "Priyanka Lao; Congress Bachao" (Bring Priyanka; Save Congress) immediately after her mother and brother led the party into the worst disaster in its history!

The Indian National Congress which fought the British and won independence for the country also kept India a democracy. But the party has not known internal democracy since 1966 when Indira Gandhi, Rahul’s grandmother, became prime minister and party supremo.

So even without Prime Minister Narendra Modi heaping scorn on how the Congress manages its internal affairs, everybody knew the party chief Sonia Gandhi would pass on the baton to Rahul just as Indira Gandhi handed over authority to her son Rajiv. And Sonia Gandhi has been holding the fort since April 6 1998, some seven years after her husband Rajiv’s assassination.

Congress members say only a Nehru-Gandhi heir can keep the party together. But earlier transfers of power within the Congress took place at a time when it held unchallenged sway over the country. From the first general election in 1952, the INC has been in power in the states and at the center. This single-party dominance ended in 1977.

Now the Congress is in power in only six states on its own. On the other hand, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended its political reach and rules in 17 states either on its own or in alliance. But the most important thing is Modi and party president Amit Shah have converted the BJP into a ruthless political machine the likes of which Indira, Rajiv or Sonia had never to encounter.

Can Rahul prove a match to Modi who remains the most popular political leader in India though there are signs that people are becoming disenchanted with his government?

Rahul’s performance as vice president of the party has been patchy at best. He has never held a ministerial portfolio and has long been insulated from the rough and tumble of frontline politics. His parliamentary performance leaves much to be desired. Rahul does not attend parliamentary sessions regularly and when present does not make his presence felt. Of course, he criticizes Modi and his party but sporadically and without a well thought-out strategy.

He often gave the impression that he was reluctantly performing the role expected of a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

But his visibility in recent weeks, especially in Gujarat (which went to polls on Saturday in the first phase of the assembly elections) suggests he is becoming more comfortable with a public role. In Gujarat, the state that prepared Modi for the national role, Rahul has been drawing crowds with sharp attacks on BJP. This has spread an air of cheery optimism among party ranks. More important, for the first time, he has expressed willingness to take over the reins of the Congress and to be his party’s candidate for prime minister against the formidable Modi.

This will not be enough to rejuvenate a party beset with internal dissensions and factionalism. The big question is whether he will come up with a new vision for the country. He should also resist the temptation to borrow the more populist and culturally conservative elements of the BJP agenda even if it is to defeat Modi’s party at its own game.