Campaign 2009 saw Congress president Sonia Gandhi add a new dimension to the art of coalition management. While she took on the role of the pacifier, refraining from targeting the Congress?s existing and prospective allies in her election speeches, Rahul Gandhi played the aggressor, taking both friends and foes by surprise.

It was expected, therefore, that the young AICC general secretary would move into the background after elections are over, leaving the task of forming the coalition to his mother. Therefore, as Sonia reaches out to existing and potential allies today, calling up Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan and meeting Sharad Pawar, in her backroom are the same old warriors like Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmed Patel, Digvijay Singh, and AK Antony, among others. Rahul and his young team are nowhere to be seen.

Election 2009 also provided a glimpse of the party?s preparations for the inevitable generational change. Rahul was unquestionably the star campaigner of the party, having addressed 120 public meetings in the course of the five-phase campaign, as against 68 by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and 21 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Sonia addressed 90 meetings and held a number of roadshows.

Conscious of her role in post-poll coalition making, Sonia skirted any direct or indirect attack on potential allies, targeting only ?communal parties? and focusing on ?achievements? of the UPA government. Rahul, on the other hand, appeared to be a man on a demolition job.

In Kerala he rejected the Samajwadi Party?s views on English. In Amethi, he talked about how one of his hands was tied (with the BSP running the state) and how he intended to free it in the next three years in UP. At Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, he said, ?There should be a balance. In Nandigram that balance was mismanaged. The government wasn?t sensitive. Schemes aren?t being implemented?I am angry.?

At a press conference in New Delhi, his remarks about the JD(U) and the AIADMK being ?like-minded parties? and his overtures to the Left left the Congress? allies squirming. Sonia, however, acted quickly to douse the fire.

The Congress chief deployed K Keshav Rao to soothe Mamata Banerjee?s frayed tempers and she herself called up DMK chief M Karunanidhi to obviate any apprehensions emanating from Rahul?s remarks. After the party?s break-up with the RJD, she maintained a studied silence, and only broke it with a call to Lalu after elections were over and it was time to prepare the ground for a coalition.