New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is getting into action mode soon after he took charge on Oct 26 and is likely to address a big Tribal rally in poll-bound Gujarat on October 29.
“As our new president, Kharge’s visit will convey a strong message among the voters. It has to be a big rally. The details are being worked out,” AICC secretary in charge of Gujarat Virender Rathore told this channel.
The rally is likely to be held in the Tribal hub of Navsari district and is crucial as the new party chief will affirm the commitments earlier made by Rahul Gandhi to the community if the Congress is voted back to power.
Tribals influence around 50 assembly seats. Keeping that in mind, Rahul Gandhi launched an Adivasi Satyagraha from another Tribal hub Dahod on May 10 when the former party chief addressed a big rally there.
Rahul had promised that if Congress was voted to power, it would scrap the controversial Par-Tapi-Narmada River link project which would submerge large chunks of land and displace around 50,000 Tribal families. Later, he claimed that the state government suspended the project under pressure from Congress.
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Rahul has been blaming the state government for neglecting the plight of the Tribals in Gujarat and had even issued a charter for their welfare in case the Congress came to power.
Kharge’s visit on Oct 29 is significant as the party’s MLA from Navsari Anant Patel, who has been spearheading a Tribal satyagraha for the past many months, was attacked on October 8.
Later, Patel staged a massive show of strength in the form of a huge procession and blamed the ruling BJP for the attack.
“The state government just takes land from the tribals without following any rules. The BJP is afraid of our movement and is behind the attack on me. The attack was to deter us. I have been fighting for the rights of the tribals for seven years and will continue to do so,” said Patel.
On Wednesday, shortly after taking over as the new Congress president from Sonia Gandhi, Kharge chaired a meeting of the Central Election Committee to finalize candidates for the coming Gujarat assembly polls. The first list of candidates is likely to be out by the end of this month.
The visit by the new Congress president, a Dalit leader who has risen from the ranks, will send a strong message among the Tribals of Gujarat, party leaders said. Besides, it would also compensate for the absence of Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the nationwide Bharat Jodo yatra.
Besides Kharge, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who is an AICC observer for Gujarat polls, is also expected to get into the campaign mode and will address four public rallies in the western state over the next week.
According to sources, Gehlot is likely to address rallies at Garbada and Fatehpura on October 28, and on October 29, he would be present at the Navsari Tribal rally along with Kharge. Gehlot will address a rally at Banaskantha and Khedbrahma on October 30 and will take part in a local yatra on October 31 at Badgaon.
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“Gehlot is a veteran and a top party leader. His rallies create a mood in our favor,” former state unit chief Amit Chavda said.
The Congress is also planning to launch six Parivartan (Change) Yatras in the state on October 31 to mobilize public support. While Oct 31 is the martyrdom day of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, it is also the birth anniversary of India’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who belonged to Gujarat.
According to AICC in charge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma, the BJP too tried to take out a Vikas Gaurav yatra in Gujarat but had to halt it abruptly over some public protests.
Sharma said that was the reason why PM Modi had been spending a lot of time in his home state Gujarat as the government did nothing in the past five years.
He further said that the nonperformance of the state government was the reason why the Prime Minister had to bring in a new Chief Minister, Bhupendra Patel, and a new cabinet last year to cover up for the lack of development.
In comparison, said Sharma, the Congress had strengthened its booth-level teams over the past months and party workers had been visiting households in a special door-to-door campaign to convey Rahul Gandhi’s eight guarantees to the voters.
“Our booth management will do the trick this time. We are working silently on the ground,” he said.
Noting that though Rahul was busy with the yatra, the former party chief had visited Ahmedabad to address a booth worker conclave on Sep 5 and would find time to address rallies in Gujarat. The state unit had also requested Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to address rallies, he added.
