Sonia’s idea of welfare state enabled her to evolve a political identity that enabled Congress to overcome the deficit of caste at a crucial stage in its history. In the 10 years before she became president in 1998, Congress had lost its upper caste base to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because of its Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Its worries were further compounded because the party’s Muslim supporters were alienated from Congress. They blamed then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, a Congress veteran, for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Then again, its once solid phalanx of Dalit voters found the radicalism of Bahujan Samaj Party’s Kanshi Ram more alluring than the politics of cooption and gradualism of Congress.
It was just the moment for the Congress president to reconfigure the party's social base. Almost all leaders bring their caste brethren into the parties they lead. Then there are other social groups welded to the leader’s caste group. However, Sonia couldn’t offer an identifiable caste nucleus for building a social alliance. Nor could then prime minister Manmohan Singh – a Sikh’s appeal to Hindu social groups is inherently limited.
