The credit goes to Rahul Gandhi for forcing the Congress to have a contest for the top post, now between Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor. A few days earlier, it had looked like the contest would be between Ashok Gehlot and Mr. Tharoor. This rare event is being watched keenly by the friends and foes of the Congress.
The trouble with the Congress party is the inbreeding that only produces stunted and disfigured shoots. Congress workers deify the Gandhi family, but they detest the stranglehold of a few dozen families that chokes all their avenues of upward mobility. As Mr. Gandhi has said, the Congress needs to have many people who are in to go out, and get many who are out to come in.
