less than six months after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi firmly placed former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in the saddle, the young Gandhi
scion is all set to visit the State, again.
Rahul Gandhi's whirlwind one-day tour this Saturday is being seen as an attempt by him to gauge the progress the party made in the State since December last, when Capt Amarinder Singh was made the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief.
His visit comes at a time when two senior State-level Ministers — Jagmeet Brar and Bir Devinder Singh — have been removed from the party for their alleged anti-party activities; and the impact their departure has made is also expected to be examined by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) vice-president.
The mood in Capt’s camp is upbeat as his Baisakhi rally at Talwandi Sabo was a crowd-puller; and his supporters believed that the report card to be placed before Rahul would as such be impressive.
With the State Assembly polls just about nine months away, the Congress party is taking Punjab very seriously. It is believed that the party is hopeful of winning back the State considering the 10-year SAD-BJP rule in Punjab, besides anti-BJP wave at the national level.
However, the party has learnt lessons from the past and is not only banking on the anti-incumbency wave, rather making all out efforts to ensure its victory.
The party has invited all the senior and grass-roots level leaders, including the district and block level presidents, for the Saturday’s meeting.
Party sources told The Pioneer that the Congress would officially launch its poll campaign for the 2017 Assembly elections in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
“Everyone — from MP to MlA; to district and block presidents — have been asked to attend the April 16 meeting. In-depth discussions on various issues afflicting the people of the State besides different aspects would be held, besides chalking out the party’s strategy for the next year’s polls,” said a senior Congress leader.
Available information suggests that the Congress, unlike previous times, has decided to get into poll mode quite earlier. “Special instructions would be given to the leaders in this meeting regarding how to approach the people and what issues to be raised and in which way. Rahul Gandhi wanted to meet them before they spread across the State,” said the leader.
Besides Gandhi, the meeting is expected to be attended by the party’s State campaign committee chairman Ambika Sonia, AICC general secretary in-charge of State party affairs Shakeel Ahmed, secretary in-charge Harish Chaudhary.
What further shows the Congress party’s zeal to win the 2017 Punjab polls is appointing Prashant Kishor as its campaign strategist. Kishor has made a name for himself after helping the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win an absolute majority in the 2014 lok Sabha election, besides paving the way for clean sweep by Nitish Kumar’s “grand alliance” in Bihar.
Kishor would also be present in the meeting and he may also be asked to give his inputs, said the leader.