Cong eyes ‘relaunch’ from Gujarat

Having faced successive poll debacles, the grand old party is expected to ‘relaunch’ itself during the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Ahmedabad on April 9, the event replete with symbolism.

The Congress is holding the event in Gujarat after 64 years, which is the home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The occasion also marks the centenary year of the lone presidential term of ‘Bapu’ Mahatma Gandhi and the 150th birth anniversary of India’s ‘Iron man’ Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The party will hold the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Sardar Patel Memorial in Shahibaug on April 8. The AICC session will be held on the banks of Sabarmati in Ahmedabad on April 9.

The party insiders said the ruling BJP got away with their legacy and had been using it against them for more than a decade now. As Gujarat is slated to go for elections in 2027, many in the Congress believe that focus on Patel may again entice Patidar community. The party’s implementation of Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim (KHAM) social engineering in 1985 hadn’t been taken well by the community.

The party’s support base in upper castes had waned, said insiders, adding that the party could do little when PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah launched an aggressive campaign to sever Patel’s Congress legacy and capitalise on his farmer background. However, the party leaders refuse to attach such significance to the event on record.

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid said, “We are not doing this in reaction. We are consistent with our legacy. Sardar Vallabhai Patel was part of modern India and modern Indian legacy. He worked very closely with Pandit Nehru. Now, the BJP tries to appropriate somebody whether it is Dr BR Ambedkar or Sadar Patel or somebody else, it is for them to do. We are consistent with our legacy. It is what we believe in.”

On the party’s focus towards the Patidar community, Khurshid said the new reality of today’s India is that people vote in group identities. “We have to deal with group identities as equitably and as faithfully as we can. So, give every group its due. This is consistent with Rahul Gandhi’s leadership in pitching the caste census,” he said.

The party insiders said the decision to hold AICC session in Gujarat had to do with “Modi narrative”.

“PM Modi has used Gujarat as a launch pad to reach Delhi and win other states,” a senior party leader said. “The Congress has started many movements from Gujarat. We are going back to the drawing board to see how we can launch ourselves from there once again,” said the above leader.

India