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Mr Gandhi believes that people’s issues should be taken up in a big way as and when they become pertinent.
Rajasthan is one of the four big states that go to the polls in 2018. It was in Jaipur in 2013 that Rahul Gandhi was made the Congress vice president. In that sense, Jaipur holds a symbolic value for Mr Gandhi. And, it is significant that he assumes charge as party president now, which is just months before electioneering will begin in Rajasthan. The party workers are thrilled, and his appointment as Congress president is bound to have a positive impact on our campaign against the BJP government in the state.
The appointment has been pending for a while, and the reason was that the party’s organisational elections were running two years behind schedule. Mr Gandhi assuming charge as Congress president is going to enthuse the party cadre. It will have an impact on the young voters of Rajasthan. The timing is good for us.
Four years ago, the Congress president and vice president asked me to take charge of the organisation in Rajasthan, where we had a drubbing in the previous assembly elections, managing to win only 21 out of 200 seats in the Vidhan Sabha. The party had to be put on the path of recovery after the severe defeat. We had to come up as a strong opposition and then launch our effort to win the elections in 2018.
Mr Gandhi has been very clear on what he expects us to do in our efforts to wrest Rajasthan from the BJP. He wants the issues of the people to be brought to the forefront. And he believes that these issues should be taken up in a big way as and when they become pertinent, rather than waiting for anti-incumbency to kick in. And that is precisely what the Congress has been doing in Rajasthan. We have carried out campaigns on the issue of corruption in the Vasundhara Raje government. We have raised our voice against the government’s anti-people policies. Mr Gandhi has been keen that the issues of farmers be raised in a powerful manner in the states. In Rajasthan, we have raised the issue of farm loan waiver. We asked why the farmers of Rajasthan were not being given the relief when other states were doing it. Also, the directive from Mr Gandhi is that criticising the government is not enough. We need to go to the people with these issues.
Contrary to media reports, and what is being propagated by BJP leaders, there is no factionalism in Rajasthan Congress. The entire party in the state, including senior leaders Ashok Gehlot and C.P. Joshi, is united. I have got the wholehearted support of senior leaders in the state.
Younger leaders in the party are being brought to the forefront. If I was given the charge of Rajasthan, more recently, Ajoy Kumar, who is a young leader, has been appointed as PCC president of Jharkhand. However, for the party to be strong, there needs to be a good mix of the young and the experienced.
We now have to hit the ground running, with just about a year and a half remaining for the next Lok Sabha elections, and a string of crucial assembly elections before that. We have to be a robust opposition to the Modi government, and effectively counter the ideology propagated by the ruling regime.
Pilot is president of the Congress in Rajasthan. As told to Soni Mishra.
