India is a democratic country and elections are a very crucial part of it. During the freedom movement, India had many young leaders who wanted to see the country develop. They wanted to bring a change in our society. Therefore, they decided to take the initiative and became the change they wanted to see.
Unfortunately, post independence, a majority of the youth who wanted to be the change, were forced to take up jobs and thus, we lost a lot of people who could have been good leaders. Slowly and gradually, India did get young leaders, but they were generally the kith and kin of senior political leaders.
The recent election results in Gujarat and Himanchal Pradesh are a reflection of the fact that that citizens of the country want to see a fresh change. They want a real leader, someone who stands up for them, someone who thinks about them, someone who may be like that harsh parent who screams at you (but only for your own welfare.) Probably just like ordinary Indians, who need to prove themselves before getting an admission in college, people want politicians who can handle things in their individual capacity and not just be part of a dynasty.
So, where exactly did the Congress party mess up so badly?
Well they did a good job on social media with their campaign and even handled the press well. When I was on Twitter on December 3, 2017 – during that time, the trending hashtag was ‘RaGaPollFarce‘. The reason was that Rahul Gandhi was already pronounced as the president of the Congress Party, even before the party elections took place. Several local leaders had already put up hoardings to congratulate him, which led to this hashtag. Within a few minutes, another #IndiawithRahulGandhi started trending, wherein all senior Congress leaders praised Rahul Gandhi from from their official Twitter handles.
I guess, if a political party does not show democracy while electing its party president, I do not think the citizens will have faith in such a party. If democracy does not exist within the political party itself, entrusting them to safeguard our democracy would be difficult.