New Delhi: Keen to present an Aam Aadmi image, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday left for the party’s Chintan Shivir in Udaipur from May 13-15 on a train where he was welcomed by the porters’ association. According to sources, Rahul boarded the train at Sarai Rohilla railway station in Delhi and was accompanied by Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary, Lok Sabha member Manickam Tagore and other leaders.
The porters’ association members presented a bouquet to Rahul and urged him to end their contractual work arrangement. Rahul accepted the bouquet and assured the porters to look into their issue. Sources said the party has booked a bogey that will take the Congress leaders to Udaipur, where the Shivir officially opens on Friday.
Ahead of the brainstorming session, there is already a demand from party leaders that Rahul, who was party chief from 2017 to 2019, be given the top party post again. The demand is sure to find resonance during the three-day Chintan Shivir where over 400 Congress leaders from across states have gathered to prepare a roadmap for the 2024 national elections. Though Rahul is expected to deliver the valedictory address on May 15, he may get involved with the various discussions taking place at the Shivir, particularly the group on youth and empowerment, headed by Punjab chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.
On the leadership issue, the party sources said that the process of internal elections is already on and will culminate with the elections for the post of party president. “People will get the answer in August. The Shivir is for us to prepare an action plan for the next two years,” said a senior AICC functionary. Rahul has already told the party leaders that Congress should get into agitation mode and start protesting against the anti-people policies of the central government. Of late he has been regularly attacking the Centre over price rise, unemployment, sliding economy, and communal violence.
According to sources, travel by train by the top leadership will send a message among the voters not only in the state but across the country as the Shivir is expected to prepare a strategy for reviving the grand old party and giving it a new direction ahead of the 2024 national elections. The Congress has lost the 2014 and 2019 national elections to the BJP and has in between lost several assembly polls also, which has demoralized the workers across the country.
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