Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi held a closed-door meeting with key Congress leaders of Bastar region on Friday in New Delhi and checked various basic inputs emerging after the May 25 bloodbath of Congress leaders such as alleged involvement of certain party leaders.
“He (Rahul Gandhi) talked to all the district unit Congress chiefs of Bastar region one by one and asked them to share their inputs with him about the deadly attack on Congress convoy,” one of the district unit chiefs who attended the meet, told The Pioneer over phone.
The source added, “Rahul Gandhiji asked us not to hesitate to share any information about the attack in which we lost out several key leaders and we, too, briefed him on the details.” The meeting lasted for about 40 minutes in which State president and Union Minister of State Charandas Mahant was kept out.
Gandhi assessed the security situation of Bastar with district chiefs and sought their suggestions how to strengthen the Congress in the region in which presently Congress holds just one out of the 12 Assembly seats.
Ravindra Choubey, leader of the Opposition in Chhattisgarh Assembly, said: “There were a total of three core issues which came up for discussion in a meeting of the party leaders from Bastar with Rahulji — the prevailing situation in Bastar when the attack on the leaders took place, issues on how to revive political activity in Bastar and whether we restart the Parivartan Yatra immediately.”
He said that no other person was allowed in the meeting except the leaders at the district level from Bastar region. He further said that the leaders from Bastar region suggested the party vice president that the dates for the Parivartan Yatra could be decided in due course due to death of VC Shukla.
Shukla succumbed to Maoists' bullets in a hospital in Gurgaon this week after battling for life for 17 days. The Maoist attack had wiped out several key figures of State's Opposition Congress, including state unit chief Nand Kumar Patel and Mahendra Karma.