Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Gujarat is taking place at the same time – now you consider it a coincidence or experiment, it is on you.
When Rahul Gandhi will be on a tour of Gujarat on March 7 and 8, Prime Minister Modi is going on a visit to Surat, and the next day the Prime Minister’s program of Navsari is made – and after a month, the Congress’s national session is going to be held in Ahmedabad after a month.
The thing to note is that Rahul Gandhi is reaching Gujarat before the national session of the Congress. During the Gujarat tour, Rahul Gandhi will hold a meeting with the Congress political affairs committee and will also meet state leaders, officials. Separately, Rahul Gandhi will also communicate with Congress workers.
Congress national session in Ahmedabad
Congress’ Organization General Secretary KC Venugopal has already reached Ahmedabad to take stock of the preparations for the national convention. The national session of the Congress is going to be held in Ahmedabad on 8 and 9 April exactly one month later.
Apart from the Congress leadership, around 3000 leaders from across the country will attend the national session. Such sessions are definitely there in the electoral states, but the assembly elections in Gujarat are to be held in 2027, in which more than two years are left.
The impact of the Delhi elections is in the form of Rahul Gandhi’s premature and the Congress’s national convention – and it seems that the next Gujarat election Congress is not 2022, but has already started preparing to fight like 2017.
Congress performance 2017 vs 2022
In the 2017 elections, the Congress started serious preparations quite late. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was on a foreign tour, where Sam Pitroda had planned several events for him, and the Congress’s social media team started the campaign in Gujarat.
The ‘Vikas Gando Thai Chhe’ of the Congress had become a hit on social media, and the BJP became so upset that Prime Minister Modi had to be removed on the front, then the Congress closed the campaign. When the election results came, it was found that the Congress had reached very close to the majority – Rahul Gandhi is already preparing for the upcoming election.
In the 2022 election, Arvind Kejriwal spoiled the Congress game in Gujarat. And the condition is that the Congress has not been able to handle yet. In the recent local body elections, the Congress was reduced to 1 from 13 municipalities – in such a situation, the Aam Aadmi Party will do the same condition like Delhi.
1. With winning the Gujarat elections, the Aam Aadmi Party became a national party, and Arvind Kejriwal, by claiming to be the challenger of Prime Minister Modi, started becoming a threat to Rahul Gandhi.
2. Since the Delhi elections, the Congress has started surrounded by the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab too – that is why Rahul Gandhi is going to encourage the leaders of Gujarat to get ready.
3. Even before the last election, Rahul Gandhi had made a lot of motives to the workers in Gujarat, but then India could not even campaign properly due to being busy in the journey. Went to Gujarat only once for the campaign. Priyanka Gandhi was watching the election campaign of Himachal Pradesh, and success was also achieved. Even though there was a distance of less than one percent in the vote share.
But, Rahul said something else in Parliament
After the better performance of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi became the Leader of Opposition, and announced in the full Parliament, ‘India block will also defeat you in Gujarat.’
But, it seems that the plan has changed after the Delhi assembly elections. If the Congress contests elections in Gujarat like Delhi, then where will India block remain. It may be that Akhilesh Yadav and Mamta Banerjee will get support to tell Arvind Kejriwal there too.
The way after Delhi, the Congress is preparing for Bihar elections, there is also the end of the role of India alliance, then what will happen to Gujarat cannot be said. The number of Gujarat will come only after West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam elections anyway – by then a lot must have changed.
If anything positive is seen in the use of Congress to contest elections on its own, then the series will continue even further – so is Rahul Gandhi going to give a green signal to the mission of strengthening the Congress instead of defeating the BJP in Gujarat?