After K’taka blitz, on to next turf Rahul to launch campaign Shah blows 2019 bugle, asks for Chhattisgarh on May 17 party to address Dalit issues
NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will launch his election campaign for Chhattisgarh with public meetings at Sitapur and Gaurella-pendra on May 17, two days after the Karnataka results and nearly six months ahead of the assembly elections in the tribal-dominated state, in a move that analysts say reflects the Congress’ new-found drive.
During his two-day visit, Gandhi will attend a conference on Panchayati Raj in Raipur on May 18. Chhattisgarh, along with Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, will go to polls in November-december. Apart from holding a road show and a bike rally, Gandhi will also interact with the booth-level office bearers at Durg and Bilaspur divisions.
Gandhi led the Congress’ campaign from the front in Karnataka, speaking in 40 rallies and around 60 other meetings. He spent 24 days in the state over the past few months.
Out of power in Chhattisgarh since 2003, the Congress will be hoping to dethrone the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and threeterm chief minister Raman Singh. In 2016, the Congress suffered a major setback after its senior leader and former chief minister Ajit Jogi quit the party to form the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh.
Congress leaders say Jogi could hurt their party’s chances by dividing anti-bjp votes, although the former CM has pitched his new party as the main challenger to the BJP and dismissed the Congress as a third force.
Prior to Jogi’s exit, the party’s entire front-line leadership, including Nand Kumar Patel, Mahendra Karma, Gopal Madhavan, Uday Kumar Mudaliar and VC Shukla, was wiped out in a deadly Maoist attack in May 2013.
The opposition party has a new team in Chhattisgarh with the appointment of PL Punia as All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge; he will be assisted by Chandan Yadav.
The challenge for the team will be to revive and strengthen the Congress at the grassroots level and build a new leadership in the state. However, party leaders are confident of ousting the BJP this time, arguing that only 1% vote share separates the two parties. In the 2013 elections, the BJP had a vote share of 41.04%, while the Congress secured 40.29%. Of the 90 seats, the BJP won 49, the Congress, 39, the BSP 1, and 1 seat went to an independent candidate.
Political experts say Gandhi’s visit will set the agenda for the upcoming polls. “For the first time in many years, we are seeing Congress workers charged up. The Congress has already activated its booth level workers, which is again a rare instance in the party which used to get into the election mode just before the polls. Rahul Gandhi’s visit will certainly help the Congress in galvanising party leaders and cadre,” Raipur-based political analyst Parivesh Mishra said. NEW DELHI: BJP president Amit Shah has blown the bugle for the 2019 election, targeting to win the next parliamentary election with a margin bigger than 2014, party spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said on Monday. And, for the BJP’S national office bearers and state presidents who met with him on Monday, he even had a slogan:
(my government, good government) slogan, Hussain said. “We have to change this perception that BJP cannot return to power at the Centre. We have to prove that BJP knows how to form government, run it and win consecutive election,” Hussain quoted Shah as telling BJP leaders.
During the meeting, which came two days after the bitterly fought Karnataka assembly elections (and a day ahead of results), Shah also asked the party to address issues related to Dalits, down to the block level, another BJP leader said on condition of anonymity. RSS pracharaks holding the posts of organisational secretaries at state level were also present at the day-long conclave.
The BJP president, widely credited, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party’s star campaigner, for the success the BJP has seen over the past four years also warned the audience against arrogance, compla- cence, and lack of attention to the party organisation. “Congress got wiped out because of its arrogance and ignoring the organisation. We have reached a situation where it has become a BJP versus all battle.”
BJP spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi said Shah “cautioned BJP leaders that satisfaction over electoral success should not converge into self complacency.”
“We have built the first floor by winning one election, 2019 victory will be the second floor. We have to raise a high building,” he quoted the party president as saying.
Shah told the audience that the BJP has over 110 million members, 330-plus MPS and over 1,800 MLAS, a feat that has been achieved because of party’s organisational strength that many other political parties were now copying. “It is our privilege that we have Modi’s leadership, but we have organisational strength too. We have strength at the booth level and we are winning because of it,” Hussain said, quoting Shah.
The BJP chief told party leaders they should not rest until states such as West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telanagana were won.
Shah took stock of the preparation for construction of party offices in district levels, the number of nights spent by central ministers and party office bearers in villages during the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan programme between April and May, discussed ways to popularise the Namo App, and sought suggestions for Modi government’s fourth anniversary celebrations.
The party will hold a joint executive meeting of its different wings on May 17 that will be addressed by the Prime Minister.