New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday said that all the issues in poll-bound Rajasthan had been resolved and all the leaders would fight the coming elections together to ensure a party win.
“All the issues have been resolved. We are all going to fight the elections together and win Rajasthan,” AICC general secretary in charge of organization KC Venugopal said. The comments came after Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge reviewed the party’s poll strategy with AICC and senior state leaders for four hours.
Elections for the 200-seat Rajasthan assembly will be held later this year. Over the past months, party managers have been concerned over two issues. One, how to break the norm under which the voters changed government in the state every five years. Two, how to end the public spat between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.
According to party insiders, the social welfare schemes of the Gehlot government would help the Congress deal with the first problem while a recent announcement made by the chief minister would assuage a miffed Pilot, who had been demanding action against corruption cases involving former BJP chief minister Vasundhara Raje and revamping the Rajasthan Public Services Commission, whose reputation had been marred by paper leaks.
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“The RPSC issue has been addressed. The chief minister has made the announcement. A foolproof act will be passed in the next assembly session to give strict punishment to those found involved in exam paper leaks,” said Venugopal. According to party insiders, Pilot, who was present during the review meeting, seemed placated over the chief minister’s move. Gehlot joined the session online via Zoom as he had injured his legs and could not travel to Delhi.
Though party insiders claimed the Gehlot-Pilot tussle had been resolved, the Congress managers realized that the issue had brought negative publicity to the party over the past months. Accordingly, the AICC instructed all the state leaders to avoid washing dirty linen in public and express their concerns only within party forums.
“If anyone is found violating the directive, strict action will be taken against them. There has to be strict discipline in the party. No comments against each other should be made in public. There are party forums for that. Today’s meeting was crucial and successful. It saw unity among the leaders and everyone expressed the confidence that the Congress will win Rajasthan,” said Venugopal.
Yet, there are some challenges on the ground, said party insiders. Keeping that in mind, Rahul asked the state leaders to ensure greater coordination between the organization and the state government and take the message of social welfare schemes to the voters.
Accordingly, the party will roll out the Rajasthan campaign from Friday and all the ministers and senior leaders will go door to door to explain the various welfare schemes to the people. Rahul also asked the state leaders to redress the concerns of the poor and the marginalized sections of society, who are the party’s traditional vote banks.
“The government schemes are good but a need was felt to take the message to the voters,” said Venugopal. While efforts will be made to publicize the welfare schemes, the party decided to announce the candidates in the first week of September to get an early mover advantage over the main opposition BJP.
“Various surveys are on to identify the potential candidates but winnability will be the main criteria. The party will launch the Rajasthan campaign from tomorrow and will be aggressive over the remaining 90 days,” said Venugopal.
Cong leaders in Rajasthan will work together to ensure party's victory, says Sachin Pilot
Congress leader Sachin Pilot said the party's lawmakers and functionaries in Rajasthan will work together to ensure its victory in the upcoming assembly polls. Speaking after the meeting convened by the Congress leadership, Pilot said it discussed ways on how to buck the trend of the state voting out incumbent governments.
Pilot also said that he raised the issues of corruption of the previous BJP government in the state, paper leaks and Rajasthan Public Service Commission reform. He expressed satisfaction that the party leadership has taken cognisance of the issues raised by him as well as those relating to the youth, and has given appropriate directions.
The Congress leader said the party will make corruption an election issue in Rajasthan. The Congress government in Rajasthan is serious about acting against corruption that happened during the previous BJP rule, he told reporters after the meeting. "There was a meaningful discussion on how to buck trend of voting out incumbent government in Rajasthan. We discussed all issues with an open mind and all expressed confidence that we can repeat the government in Rajasthan," Pilot said.
"The Congress organisation, MLAs, ministers will work together. We want to repeat our government in Rajasthan," he said, adding that the Congress had won in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 2018 and this will be repeated this time again with a massive mandate.
