Monday wasn’t celebration time just for the BCCI. If BCCI boss Sharad Pawar and his lieutenants were celebrating MS Dhoni’s arrival on the big stage of cricket in emphatic fashion holding the Twenty20 World Cup, it was also celebration time at the AICC headquarters in the heart of the national capital. In Dhoni and men, the BCCI bosses believe that they have found the formula to reassert their monopoly control over cricket in the country against a new challenge posed by the nascent Indian Cricket League. The announcement from the AICC on Rahul Gandhi’s appointment as a party general secretary has likewise instantly instilled hope among Congressmen that in his arrival at the party headquarters they have now a young new leader who would b ring about a turnaround in Congress fortune.

Much as Congressmen might believe Rahul would do to the party what Dhoni has done to lift Indian cricket out of its post-World Cup woes, it must be emphasised that the simultaneous celebrations fall in two different categories. If one celebration was about a big accomplishment, the other is driven by a strong belief about accomplishing one in future. The Congress rank and file has no room to doubt Rahul’s abilities as a future leader of the party. The question, however, is not just about the confidence in the party about their young leader’s abilities. It is equally, if not more, about winning the trust and confidence of the general electorate.

Rahul wasn’t convincing in Uttar Pradesh where he led his party’s campaign to a disastrous result in the recent assembly elections. Perhaps, the UP backdrop explains why Rahul has confined himself to just overseeing NSUI and Youth Congress affairs in his maiden role as party general secretary. Twentyfive years ago, when his father, Rajiv Gandhi, was first appointed as party general secretary he had taken command of UP affairs as the state usually held key to power in Delhi. This would actually suggest that Rahul’s entry to AICC headquarters remains a tentative one. But for him to revive the Congress fortunes in a decisive way, he would have to revive its fortunes in big states like UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, not to speak of the perennial problem states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Unless he faces this challenge and produces results, the Congress may have to be content with practicing coalition politics in the foreseeable future