By Parth Gupta
Indian National Congress(INC) Vice President Rahul Gandhi ended his three-day tour of Gujarat in a bid to reclaim partys lost ground. For Congress, which has been on the back-foot for the last three years, upcoming Gujarat assembly elections can be considered the last chance of recovery before the crucial 2019 General elections. Congress aims to win over 100 seats out of the total182 in the approaching elections. With this in mind, the INC arranged Natarajan Yatra for the Vice President which started on Monday.
Itinerary for the visit
The Congress VP kickstarted his campaign for the party from the Dadiyapada village of tribal-dominated Narmada district in South Gujarat. Gandhi, in his 20-minute speech, attacked the BJP for favouring a select few and not the entire state. Gujarat is currently being ruled by no more than 10-15 people and that in Vibrant Gujarat, nobody except those people has got real benefits, he commented . If Congress Party comes to power, it will ensure the protection of Jal (water), Jungle (forests) and Jameen (land) of the tribal, he added.
Rahul Gandhi also made a visit to the caste-driven Saurashtra region which sends the highest number of legislators to the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly. Keeping in line with his campaign theme, Yuva Rojgar, Kisan Adhikar, he talked about the three burning issues likely to hurt the BJP in coming monthslack of jobs, economic slowdown, and farmers being plunged into a deeper crisis.
RaGa’s interaction with the voters
In a style not entirely dissimilar from Modi, Gandhi asked the crowd, Aapko mili naukri (Did you get employment)? and the crowd shouted in unison, Nahi, Nahi (no, no). He got the same answer when he asked, Do you want demonetisation? The Rahul Gandhi seeking to strike a conversation with the voters was a fresh new avatar. At the same time, he attempted to supplement his accusation of the BJP not consulting everyone but unilaterally deciding the way forward.
The Congress VP reiterated also attacked the new Gujarat Model. “The true Gujarat model is the Sardar Patel model, the Amul model, which the women of Gujarat gave to create a white revolution, not a single individual. It is the Kisan welfare model and it is the model of small and medium scale businessmen,” the Congress leader said.
The Congress set the perfect stage for Rahul Gandhi to selectively and effectively campaign in the state. Rahul Gandhi visited the Patidar-dominated areas which happen to be the deciding factor in polls. Patidars have been long supporters of the BJP. However, the community has turned against them over the reservation issue which is also a worrying factor for the ruling BJP.
What will come of it?
The highlight of Rahul Gandhis tour was his well-articulated attacks on issues that matter to the business community the mostthe rollout of GST and demonetisation. He did the same during his US visit and an identical plan is being implemented in Gujarat. “Narendra Modi-ji did not ask anyone before imposing demonetisation on the country. The RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was not asked, the Finance Minister was not consulted, the Chief Economic Adviser of the government was not informed,” the Congress vice-president added.
Demonetisation and the GST were supposed to be key winning points for the BJP in elections. However, the Congress is making full use of these examples topoint the faults of the government. A strong INC would imply that there is a good opposition in placeto ensure the fundamental checks that balance the democratic system.
Featured Image Source: theglobalpanorama via VisualHunt.com / CC BY-SA
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