Modasa, April 16 (IANS) Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, said on Wednesday that the road to defeat the BJP runs through Gujarat, asserting that the land (Gujarat) has given birth to Congress’s ideological roots.
“The road to defeating the RSS-BJP ideology runs through Gujarat. The very land that gave Congress its ideological roots. Gujarat remains central to the Congress party’s vision and mission,” said LoP Rahul Gandhi during his address at the District Workers’ Convention in Modasa, Gujarat.
Rahul Gandhi energised party workers under the ‘Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan’ – an internal organisational campaign to revive and strengthen the Congress from the grassroots.
“The fight between Congress and RSS-BJP is not just political, it is ideological. The entire country knows that only Congress has the power and vision to counter and defeat them,” he said.
He expressed confidence that reviving the Congress in Gujarat is possible and essential, assuring that the party will complete this task with determination.
LoP Rahul Gandhi also launched a scathing attack against the Modi government, accusing it of fueling unemployment and widening economic inequality.
“India’s wealth is being handed over to a select few. Whatever they ask for, they get, while the common people are left watching helplessly,” he said.
Making a strong pitch for internal democracy and grassroots leadership, LoP Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress party will now assign responsibility based on capability, and not visibility.
Drawing a vivid analogy, he said the party will now choose “race-horses” over “wedding-horses”, implying a move towards performance-based recognition rather than symbolic presence.
He further emphasised decentralisation of power within the Congress, stating that district-level operations should be controlled from the districts themselves, and not from Ahmedabad.
“District presidents will be empowered, and their selection will be based on the input of ground-level leaders, not imposed from the top,” he said.
Importantly, LoP Rahul Gandhi announced that in the new structure, it will be the party organisation, and not individuals, that will decide who contests elections, framing it as a pilot initiative for nationwide reform.
LoP Rahul Gandhi also encouraged the rise of a new generation within the Congress, calling for the promotion of leaders who are truly connected to the people and the grassroots.
He urged party members to tactfully distance themselves from those suspected of colluding with the BJP, ensuring the Congress remains ideologically pure and electorally strong.
Senior Congress leaders K.C. Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik, Shaktisinh Gohil, Amit Chavda, Shailesh Parmar, Tushar Chaudhary, Madhusudan Mistry, Bharat Solanki, Shiv Dahariya, Laljibhai Desai, and Kamalendra Singh were also present on the occasion.
–IANS
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