Plans to tour Maharashtra more often in preparation for Mission 2014; party cadres donalt39t wish to ally with spoilsport NCP
FPJ POLITICAL BUREAU Mumbai
On his first political visit to Maharashtra after the UP debacl
e, Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed fears over the Congress losing its base in the state against the backof the partys poor showing in the recent civic polls. Congress workers, office bearers and youth leaders aggressively pitched for contesting the 2014 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on its own. ” We donalt39t want NCP with us”, was the main demand during interaction of various representatives of party with the Congress scion.
To know the reason of poor performance of party and strengthen it, Rahul has decided to tour the State more often to boost the grassroots cadre and assist party preparations for the assembly elections due in 2014.
Immediately after he arrived in Mumbai, Rahul interacted with the NSUI and later Youth Congress workers at Bhaidas Hall at Vile Parle. He also interacted with Block and District chiefs of Congress and State officebearers at Tilak Bhavan, party state headquarters in the afternoon. In the evening, he interacted with all elected representatives of local selfgovernment bodies in the state.
” I plan to undertake constituency- wise tours to take a first hand view of the partys strengths and weaknesses. I will come more often here”, the Congress leader is said to have told the NSUI delegates at a closed- door meeting.
The Congress leader said he and his sister Priyanka Gandhi would extensively campaign and tour the State for the 2014 elections.
” NCP ditched Congress in local body elections by allying with the BJP and Sena.
We should not trust and ally with NCP in 2014,” youth, block, district presidents and state office bearers all in one chorus expressed this sentiment in separately held meetings. But Rahul snubbed them saying ” NCP is our partner, but it does not mean that we should lose our ground to them. We should have strong presence in every block,” Rahul advised.
Tushar Pote, a second year BBA student of SSGM College from Shirdi who was present, quoted Rahul as having said he was worried that the Congress was losing its base at the grassroots level to NCP. ” Why are we No. 2 party in the recent local bodies elections. I got to know different versions of the reasons.
Hence I have decided to personally look into it,” Rahul is reported to have said. During the interaction, Rahul was told that ever since Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar came in the forefront in the state, the party was steadily improving its base at the grassroots level whereas the Congress was identified with scams.
Now, audit of workers
Congress will soon have performance audit of every party worker.
” The party will soon have a system for auditing performance of every party worker. The workers who are not useful will be removed from the party,” Rahul disclosed to Block Congress presidents.
