With Sonia Gandhi's comeback in the saddle, the grand old party's stability can now be assured, say the Congress's rank and file that was thrown in a void after Rahul Gandhi's resignation and refusal to helm the party affairs. The Gandhi scion had his reasons — while he put some in a public domain, the exact nature of other decision-makers that discouraged him from taking up the job again may never surface even when the party's modern history is written. A long-time Congress leader from Maharashtra who has done his politics in New Delhi for most of his career said that the party's control now rested with the veterans who were a guiding force for Sonia in her first term of 19 years as the national president of the once most powerful political force in the country.

A senior journalist friend in New Delhi, who has been following the Congress for decades, said a common feeling in the party is that Rahul worked very hard and yet the Congress couldn't deliver the expected results in the Lok Sabha polls. Why? He says the analysis by the party's veterans has spelt out one reason that can be corrected in due course of time. "There was a great disconnect between the upper and lower level of the party. The working style of Team Rahul was entirely different from that of Team Sonia which comprised veterans who always had a sense of reality," said the journalist, adding that the veterans who have been close to Sonia Gandhi should now be leading from the front, making the 'aspiring' younger lot even more nervous. Can the veterans, including Sonia Gandhi, prevent this feeling of nervousness from weakening the party further? We will have to wait for some time to see how it happens.