कलंदर बिलंदराचा ब्लॉग

In 2001, Ms. Sonia Gandhi – the matriarch of the grand old party of India – took a holy dip in the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj for the first time. It was a big political statement by a newbie politician who wanted to advertise her Hindu credentials, shed the foreigner tag to try and improve her party’s sagging electoral fortunes. As news TV flashed the video clippings of the lady wading into and lowering herself into the muddy waters of the confluence, I wondered if such gimmicks really worked. It seems they did, for Ms. Gandhi’s party went on to capture power in New Delhi within a few years after the dip and held on to it for a whole decade. It is not clear if Ms. Gandhi had come again for a ritual dip secretly in recent years, but her party’s candidate won the Lok Sabha seat of Prayagraj in 2024. A couple of dozen years after Ms. Gandhi’s first grand watery pilgrimage, the party still runs some state governments and even felt rejuvenated last year after its surprising (though not good en...