Quite a few believed at the time that his venture would be a continuation of the Mumbai fiasco. With no political experience and no money, it wasn't considered possible that he would be able to take on the established parties with their enormous funds, organizational network and knowledge of how to "work" the system.
But what the doubters did not reckon with was the enormity of the seething anger against the Congress. In a way, it was comparable to what NTR had exploited. But, if a single incident at the Hyderabad airport had sparked off the rage in Andhra Pradesh, the prevailing wrath in Delhi against the Congress was the result of at least three years of what Finance Minister P. Chidambaram described as the government's "ethical and governance deficits".
But it wasn't only these deficits which have since laid the Congress low. These deficiencies were compounded by the party's and the government's callousness - reflected by the heir-apparent's casual attitude towards parliament - and cynicism, exemplified by attempts to buy off the voters with doles and subsidies.
