Focus on Rahul as Congress chintan shivir opens

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Published : May 13, 2022, 1:11 PM IST

Focus on Rahul as Congress chintan shivir opens

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi received a grand welcome which indicates that the former party chief will be the centerpiece of the chintan shivir.

Udaipur(Rajasthan): The grand welcome that Rahul Gandhi has received from the Congress leaders and workers en route his train journey from Delhi to Udaipur indicates that the former party chief will be the centrepiece of the chintan shivir.

Right from the moment Rahul boarded the train at Delhi’s Sarai Rohilla station Thursday evening, he was greeted by a large gathering of senior leaders and workers, led by Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary. Rahul was accompanied by a battery of senior leaders including Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and CWC members Jairam Ramesh, Vivek Bansal, Ajoy Kumar, Jitendra Singh, Manickam Tagore, Avinash Pande and others.

En route, the party workers cheered the former Congress chief at stations like Pataudi, Dabla and Rewari to Udaipur. Each time Rahul got down from the train and interacted with the leaders briefly. At Udaipur, chief minister Ashok Gehlot received him at 5 am amid a traditional welcome in which local artists performed to the beating of drums and sang welcome songs.

The train journey was meant to convey an Aam Aadmi image and it worked well for Rahul as well as for the party. To keep up the tempo, Rahul even boarded a bus to the chintan shivir, accompanied by Gehlot, state unit chief Govind Dotasra, Bhupesh Baghel, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda among others.

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The roads from the station to the venue had been lined up with party banners and hoardings displaying the pictures of Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who seemed visibly pleased with the arrangements as he chatted with Gehlot sitting right next to him. “This is not merely a style. It is our connection with the masses,” said a senior AICC functionary.

Party insiders said the focus on Rahul is likely to be reflected in a major chorus from the leaders that the former party chief should again be given the reins of the grand old party. Rahul had become Congress president through an internal election process in 2017 and later resigned in 2019 owning up to responsibility for the party’s poll defeat in the national elections.

As over 400 leaders from across the country gather to prepare a strategy for the next big battle of the 2024 national polls, the demand for bringing back Rahul at the helm is likely to get amplified during the crucial session. Rahul’s critics, however, point out that he has few electoral victories to showcase during his presidency. This had even given voice to a section of the party, represented by veterans like Kapil Sibal, who wanted a non-Gandhi as the new Congress chief.

“All the Congress workers and leaders want Rahulji to take over the party. But a process of internal elections is on and the results will be known in August,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said. Yet, sources said, that may not deter the majority of the gathering at the shivir to play up the demand again. There are enough pointers to that, the sources added.

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