'Turbulent' road ahead for Congress

NEW DELHI: After an excellent year in which it led a coalition back to power at the Centre, the Congress finds itself in sheer turbulence as 2010 comes to a close, ending as it does hit by scam after scam.

The 'aam aadmi' (common man) plank of the party appeared to be coming unstuck, bringing onion tears to the Congress leadership, as price rise continued to give a tough time to the common man.

For Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the year has come to be one of their toughest periods in political life with party leaders caught in scams.

And the outlook for the new year is not that bright with the volatile issue of a separate Telangana state haunting the party amid growing apprehensions that the politically key Andhra Pradesh is gradually slipping out of its hands due to revolt by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

In the year ahead, Gandhi has much reasons to worry in view of crucial Assembly elections to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Assam in a few months time.

Bihar polls witnessed the lowest ever score of four in a House of 243 in spite of the fact that Rahul Gandhi, whom the party projects as the future leader and potential Prime Minister, had virtually led the campaign charge.

The Congress had contested the Bihar elections on its own and something horribly had gone wrong.

A greater cause of worry was that it looked as if the new government at the Centre had lost steam and the nerve just one year into the office.

Despite being the 125th year of the Grand Old Party, 2010 was a year of sleepless nights for Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

While the first half of the year went into tackling price rise which continued to be a cause for concern throughout the year, the rest was all about scams and scandals hitting at regular intervals.