Monday, December 27 2004 16:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: It was undoubtedly the year of Congress President Sonia Gandhi who achieved the "near-impossible" task of handing out a shock defeat to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) at the Centre, which deluded itself by a false "feel good" factor, and an equally surprise decision to give up the post of the Prime Minister which was hers.

It was also the end of an era for the party with the former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, hailed as the "father of economic reforms" and the first Premier outside Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a five-year term, breathing his last.

For, 2004 started as one of the worst of years for the Congress President, who was driven to the wall as the party lost badly in Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh held in late 2003 on the back of a saffron surge.

Congress was the underdog and BJP the favourite as 2003 rang out and no one in his wildest dreams, including a large section of the media, spoke of Gandhi and her party having a ghost of a chance of gaining power in Delhi as talk of early poll was in the air.

With Atal Bihari Vajpayee being projected as one of the best Prime Ministers India had, the BJP-led NDA advanced the general elections to April-May from October to reap the rewards of "India shining". But, it was not to be.

"I bet, none of you present here would have thought that this year I will be here as leader of the ruling party as everyone of you felt I will continue to be Opposition leader," these opening remarks of Gandhi at a recent international conference reflected the mood when 2004 rung in.

But, Sonia made all the difference. Caught by the alliance bug in the wake of Shimla Conclave of the party, she marshalled her forces in such a way that the saffron combine, entrenched in power since 1998, failed to match.

And when the game was won, Sonia again did the impossible by renouncing Prime Ministership and nominating Manmohan Singh for the top Government job - an action that resulted in the AICC (All India Congress Committee) likening her to Mahatma Gandhi.

Determined to defeat the BJP at its own game - alliance building - Sonia walked the extra mile in search of friends - from her next-door neighbour in Delhi - Ram Vilas Paswan of the LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) to DMK's (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) M Karunanidhi, whose party's participation in the United Front Government, had resulted in its downfall by Congress.

She also drove down to the residence of Sharad Pawar, who broke away from Congress in 1999 on the issue of her foreign origin and formed the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party). Neither did she publicly show the humiliation when Laloo Prasad of the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) gave a mere four seats to her party in Bihar, one of the most important States in the Hindi heartland.

Sonia was acquiring new friends and was not standing on prestige as head of the country's oldest and largest political party having Governments in over a dozen States.

The tone of Congress, which felt at Pachmarhi session in September 1998 that coalitions was a "transient phase", changed in Shimla where it underlined the need for coming together of all secular forces to defeat the BJP-led NDA.

The widow of Rajiv Gandhi, who was often derided by the BJP and Sangh Parivar on her leadership qualities, felt in the years of wilderness that unless the party captured the Centre, there was not much use of holding power in the States.

Aware that Vajpayee was able to lead the coalition for six long years, as he was liberal with allies, Sonia took an ambivalent position on the leadership issue in the event of the party led alliance came to power. This was to raise the comfort level of some allies like NCP.

A similar position on the issue of separate Telangana helped Congress to forge ties with the TRS (Telangana Rashtriya Samithi), championing the cause of a separate State and making mincemeat of Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP (Telugu Desam Party) in Andhra Pradesh in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

In fact, the results in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh turned the tide against the BJP-led coalition as the saffron outfit floundered while retaining allies and nine of them left the NDA in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.

Sonia brought in Vilasrao Deshmukh, Y S Rajshekhar Reddy and N Dharam Singh as Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka respectively while Sushil Kumar Shinde and S M Krishna were made Governors.

A reason for the defeat of the BJP-led NDA was the failure of the saffron party and its allies in the South, where they came a cropper in Tamil Nadu, won only one in Kerala and a handful in Andhra Pradesh crumbing the fort of Naidu, who with 27 MPs had wielded great influence in the NDA earlier.

The Lok Sabha polls saw GSonia shifting her constituency from Amethi to Rae Bareli and inducting her son Rahul into active politics, in a move seen as making him 'heir apparent'. Rahul was made party nominee from Amethi, a seat once held by Rajiv Gandhi.

She dispatched senior leader Salman Khurshid to UP as PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) Chief in what he himself described as "make or break" opportunity in a State where the party was getting increasingly at loggerheads with SP (Samajwadi Party) led by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The defeat in Kerala in the Lok Sabha polls, where the Congress failed to win a single seat of the total 20 seats led to Chief Minister A K Antony giving way to Oomen Chandy. The party also did badly in Uttaranchal and Punjab, where it is ruling as also in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

But the silver lining was in Gujarat, where the party won 12 of the 25 seats, sending shockwaves in the saffron party which considered the Narendra Modi ruled State as its laboratory.