At the 1998 All India Congress Committee plenary, Sonia Gandhi’s election as Congress President was ratified. Electorally, the party was at its lowest, having lost two consecutive elections and reduced to its lowest strength in the Lok Sabha with 144 MPs. It was in power in only a few states including – Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Internally, the party leadership was fragmented. Even after Sitaram Kesari’s controversial exit, other senior leaders were yet to fully accept Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, ostensibly because of her foreign origins.
In 2017, the AICC plenary will ratify her son, Rahul Gandhi’s election as party president. Electorally, the party is at its lowest point after the 2014 general election – reduced to only 49 MPs in the Lok Sabha. After losing Meghalaya and Assam, the Congress is reduced to power in only three states – Karnataka, Punjab and Mizoram and one union territory - Pondicherry. Internally, the party struggles to strike a balance between the ambitions of the old and the new guard, continues to be outsmarted by the BJP’s ground-level organisation skills and outshouted by its media campaigns.
It took Sonia Gandhi six years before she could lead the party to a election victory in 2004. With less than a year to go for the 2019 general election, the AICC plenary gives fair view of the message that the Congress is trying to send to its party workers and the Opposition.