Sources say that it was also decided in Thursday's meeting that elections would be fought collectively without outsourcing it to a PR company
Following the Assembly election debacle in Uttar Pradesh, where it had partnered with the Samajwadi Party and pitched Rahul Gandhi as the face of the party, the Congress Party has now decided to play up local state leaders in the campaign for the Gujarat state polls due in December.
At a strategy meeting in Delhi on Thursday, which was attended by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, the party decided that local and state leaders will shoulder the campaign against the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party and that any member of the Gandhi family would campaign only at the request of the local unit, and only tactically, at that.
Sources said that it was also decided in Thursday’s meeting that elections would be fought collectively without outsourcing it to a PR company.
The strategy is in stark contrast to the UP polls, where Rahul Gandhi ended up becoming the face of the joint campaign, along with then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Also, Priyanka Gandhi ran the backroom operations for the campaign. But not only did the party lose by a wide margin, the result also impacted thepolitical credibility of Priyanka Gandhi who is said to have been behind the idea of an alliance and joint campaign.
The strategy session also decided on four issues – price rise, corruption, farmers distress and unemployment – that the party will fight the elections on, sources told DNA.
“We are going to fight elections jointly and collectively. Every state election cannot boil down to the leadership,” Congress Gujarat President Bharat Solanki told DNA.
The Congress has earlier experimented with a similar model that has paid them rich dividends. Before 2014, states like Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka were fought on state issues under strong regional faces. In both, the party was able to form the government. In Manipur, too, where it lost, Ibobi Singh put up a good fight in Manipur which was reeling under 15 years of incumbency. Congress was voted as the single largest party short of a majority, but the BJP quickly cobbled together an alliance to form the government.
Sources say that the Congress has this time given its leaders a so-called ‘Mission 125’, referring to the number of seats it wants to win. Sources say that party seniors are in touch with Hardik Patel, the young Patidar leader who has been a thorn in the ruling party’s side, to ensure that he forges an alliance with the party. This is also to prevent him from aligning with the Nationalist Congress Party, a move that could eat into the anti incumbency vote in the state at cost of the Congress.
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