'Cong backs Rahul but BJP distrustful of Varun'

New Delhi: A new book on Rahul Gandhi makes a comparison between him and his cousin who, it feels, is "practically isolated" in his party BJP.

"To a large extent, it boils down to the choices which Rahul and Varun and their fathers or mothers have made. While Rajiv enjoyed the goodwill of the people, Sanjay was almost hated for his policies," the book titled 'Rahul' by journalists Jatin Gandhi and Veenu Sandhu says.

"While Rahul makes an extra effort to be seen as secular, Varun has done just the opposite. While the Congress would like nothing better than to see Rahul as Prime Minister of India, the BJP remains distrustful of Varun because he is, at the end of the day, a Gandhi," it says.

The book notes that BJP leaders have often pulled up Varun for his deviation from party line. "In Rahul's case, any variance becomes the new party line," it adds.

While one is "openly celebrated" by the party as its next Prime Ministerial candidate, the book says, "the other (Varun) often stands practically isolated within his party".

On Rahul's 'Mission 2012', the book says that he hoped to "re-jig" Mayawati's social engineering formula to regain his party's winning combination in UP though Congress winning 21 seats in 2009 general elections from UP made the BSP chief to focus on wooing Dalits and Muslims even at the cost of losing Brahmin votes.

After launching the party's efforts to regain hold in UP, the book says the Congress, just like the BSP, hoped to select candidates for the 2012 Assembly elections in 2011.

However, it says, "after the Congress suffered heavy losses in Bihar (assembly polls), the party cadres which had been working on the grand plan to wrest UP from Mayawati seemed to lose direction."

The book notes that Bihar assembly results in 2010 showed that Rahul's formula of doing away with alliances had boomeranged on the party.

The book also points out that his performance in Parliament in the current Lok Sabha is dismal as he spoke only once since May 2009.

"From May 2009 till the Monsoon session of 2011, Rahul had not asked a single question...MPs from other parties had, on an average, asked 119 questions in the two years of 15th Lok Sabha...He had performed better as a first time MP in the UPA-I but only in comparison to himself," it says.