New Delhi: Post the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Rahul Gandhi-Mallikarjun Kharge leadership combo appears to be driving the grand old party, which is trying too hard to revive itself ahead of the 2024 national elections, many Congress leaders said on Tuesday, a day after the nationwide foot march concluded in Srinagar.
“The new year has seen a new style of leadership combo. After the yatra, Rahul Gandhi emerged as the undisputed leader of the party as someone who kept the ideological factor on top and has a pan-India appeal. On his part, Kharge, who was duly elected to the top party post, has emerged as a president who knows his job. Both Rahul and Kharge are complementing each other and will prepare the party for future challenges,” AICC secretary in charge of organisation Qazi Nizamuddin told ETV Bharat.
The sense of appreciation was reflected as the party workers lined up outside Rahul’s residence to welcome the leader, who returned from Srinagar. According to Qazi, who listed the benefits to the party from Rahul’s yatra, earlier the Congress leaders had to urge people to listen to the former party chief but now the people were listening to him on their own. “The people’s perception of Rahul Gandhi has changed. The BJP had run a campaign for his character assassination. But that fake image has been demolished,” he said. The AICC functionary further said that the yatra had left the Congress leaders and workers charged up.
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“Rahul Gandhi has drawn a big line. The casual approach among the workers has gone. Now the workers feel that if their leader has worked so hard, they should at least do five per cent of that and the results on the ground would be different,” said Qazi. In reference to the yatra, he said the party was already implementing the “Hath se Hath jodo” campaign to spread the message further and more such mass contact programmes would follow in the coming months.
Talking about Kharge, Qazi said the party needed a very seasoned person to head the organisation, who knew how to fight elections as well as fix the organisational issues. “Kharge has risen from the ranks and has won several elections himself. While he knows Karnataka, even before he became party president, Khargeji used to guide me on how to contest my Assembly seat,” Qazi, former MLA from the Manglaur assembly constituency in Haridwar, said.
According to the AICC general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh JP Agarwal, though the Gandhi family was inseparable from the Congress, its former president Rahul Gandhi and incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge were working fine as a team. “I am sure that the two leaders will take decisions that will further strengthen the party in the poll year. In his speech in Srinagar Kharge appreciated the contribution of Rahul’s yatra to the party. Kharge has been addressing rallies across the country since taking over as president,” Agarwal told this channel. AICC secretary in charge of West Bengal BP Singh concurred with Agarwal and Qazi. “The Rahul-Kharge leadership team has been working smoothly since October last year. They will regroup the organisation also,” Singh told ETV Bharat.
