Top Congress leaders on Sunday asserted that the party’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra is a huge success and BJP is scared that Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the padyatra, will emerge in a new avatar.
Party’s presidential candidate Mallikarjun Kharge said as huge numbers of people are associating themselves with Rahul Gandhi, BJP is getting scared. Another senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said the former party chief will be seen in a new avatar after Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“As Rahul Gandhi's popularity is increasing, these (BJP) people's (popularity) is reducing,” Kharge said in Jammu.
Digvijay Singh said Rahul Gandhi has become a symbol of "Bharat jodo" (unite India) and will be seen in a new avatar post the Congress' pan-India march.
Singh, who has been a part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra since it started from Kanyakumari, said that the march has definitely impacted the Congress positively as it is for the first time after many years that the grand old party is being discussed in remote areas, villages and people are very impressed that Rahul Gandhi is walking all the way.
The yatra will help strengthen the party, he said while noting that the commitment to ideology and leadership is missing in the Congress at present.
Rahul Gandhi is spearheading the yatra that began from Kanyakumari and will end in Jammu and Kashmir. A host of Congress leaders will walk 3,500 km during the march.
"In this country, if anyone does 'tyag' (sacrifice), he is always revered. Sonia Gandhi did 'tyag' of the prime minister's post. And here, Rahul Gandhi is walking, sweating in the heat, standing in the rain, fighting all kinds of fake news and defamation. He has become a symbol of Bharat jodo," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.
He said he has known Rahul for a long time, and once he decides to do something, nothing can stop him from achieving that.
"Frankly, I have always seen him as a very highly committed and ideologically committed person with a highly inquisitive mind. He would not let you go until he has his answers. And, he is a prolific leader and very spiritual too," the veteran Congress leader said.
Singh, who has dropped out of the race for the post of Congress president and became proposer for party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, noted that the Congress is "extremely poor" as an organisation as compared to the BJP organisation, which is a cadre-based party.
"Obviously, new leadership will emerge from the party," he said, adding those who are taking part in the march have left their homes and showing their commitment.
Elections for the Congress president's post will take place on October 17 and results will be announced on October 19.
"One of the major weaknesses of the Congress is that it works in silos. There is no horizontal integration of all Congressmen at the cutting edge, which is the grassroot at the ground level. We have attempted this in this yatra. This is the format that we are preparing," he said.
Talking about the yatra, he said they have appointed coordinators for every state and district and the party's frontal bodies and cells are also doing so, which will help strengthen the organisation structure at the grassroots level.
He said party leaders have been assigned identifiable tasks to fill in and visit many households and provide feedback.
The biggest achievement of the yatra is that the media is looking at us now, he said, adding Congress workers are out of their homes, in the streets and on the roads now.
Singh also hit out at some Congress leaders, saying there are some leaders who are experts in all India politics but have not ventured out of their homes in Delhi.