Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, during his visit to Gujarat on Tuesday and Wednesday, launched a scathing critique of senior party leaders based in Ahmedabad, stating that leaders who merely roam around in cars in the city would now be asked how many votes they secured in their own booths.&nbsp;
The remarks were made as part of his address at the &lsquo;Sangathan Sirjan Abhiyan&rsquo; event in Modasa, where he announced a major organizational overhaul aimed at empowering district-level leadership and introducing a new system of accountability.
&ldquo;A senior leader sitting in Ahmedabad and roaming in car would be asked how many votes he got in own booth. Membership is increasing? Party leaders are attending local agitation? Whether our vote increased in local and assembly polls? We can easily measure this and would select the leaders accordingly,&rdquo; Gandhi said while addressing over 1,200 party workers in Aravalli district.
He announced that the Congress would begin selecting leaders based on performance metrics, with a shift towards decentralization of power to the district level.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t measure who is working, who has hold over booth, who loses in own booth. After such data, we would start productive competition. Suppose if we win Gujarat polls, the ministers will be made from best-performing districts. If there&rsquo;s a district where there are six seats and we win only one seat from that district, and the biggest leader in Gujarat is from that district, then he would not be given a chance (to become minister),&rdquo; Gandhi said.
Gandhi criticized internal party dynamics, saying, &ldquo;The competition among leaders within the party is not productive but destructive.&rdquo; Drawing an analogy, he added, &ldquo;The party would select a horse suitable for race for race and leaders suitable for wedding procession dance to wedding procession. There&rsquo;s also another class of horses that are handicapped.&rdquo;
He said that Gujarat would be the testing ground for this new model. &ldquo;Our fight is one of ideology, and we will fight and win that battle in Gujarat,&rdquo; he declared.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Rather than managing everything from Ahmedabad, the party should give more power to the president of each district.&rdquo;
Launching the pilot project of empowering district Congress presidents, Gandhi said, &ldquo;Gujarat gave Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel,&rdquo; adding that the state remains central to the ideological battle against the BJP and RSS. &ldquo;Congress is working to grow stronger. It is a war of ideologies. Only Congress can defeat BJP and RSS and its route goes through Gujarat.&rdquo;
He revealed that district presidents had been selected in the past without proper consultation, leading to discontent among party workers. &ldquo;There were complaints that party candidates would be dropped by the state party leadership without consulting the district organisations. From now on, the district party chiefs will be selected carefully after a lot of deliberations and feedback by party observers, and such district presidents will run the party in their district and also decide the candidates.&rdquo;
Addressing the demoralization among party workers in Gujarat, he said, &ldquo;The party workers in Gujarat are demoralised,&rdquo; but added, &ldquo;I am sure this fight is winnable.&rdquo; He interacted with party cadres during the event and responded directly to their concerns.
He also drew attention to the disconnect between the party organization and elected representatives. &ldquo;We want there to be a connection between the organization and those contesting elections. These days, what happens is that the Congress organization helps someone win an election, and once that person becomes an MLA or MP, they forget the organisation and say, &lsquo;You do your work, and I&rsquo;ll do mine.&rsquo; So now, we will select candidates through the organisation.&rdquo;
Gandhi sharply criticised some senior Congress leaders who he alleged had no electoral grounding. &ldquo;Many such leaders in the party have established themselves as senior leaders but are not even capable of winning a booth. Therefore, we want to empower those who have a strong presence at the booth level,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;We want to bring a new generation into the Congress. Among this crowd, some leaders are connected to the people, and we want to promote them. There are also some leaders in this crowd who have mingled with the BJP &mdash; we will identify them and lovingly show them the way out,&rdquo; he added.
He reiterated the party&rsquo;s commitment to cleaning its ranks of those allegedly colluding with the BJP. &ldquo;A list of Congress workers will be made who are involved with BJP,&rdquo; Gandhi said at a meeting on Tuesday.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Congress has decided to appoint the district president and district committee by May 31. A list of leaders should be formed who are involved with BJP. Our main fight is with the BJP, not amongst ourselves.&rdquo;
Referring to a prior meeting on March 9, he had said, &ldquo;If we want to build a relationship (with people), then we have to do two things, the first task is to separate these two groups (loyalists and BJP supporters), strict action has to be taken. Even if we have to remove 10, 15, even 20 or 30 people, then we should remove them.&rdquo;
He further added, &ldquo;You are working for the BJP from the inside. Go out and see how you work from the outside. You don't have a place here.&rdquo;
Addressing the issue of gender imbalance in leadership, Gandhi pointed out, &ldquo;I met with district presidents of Congress party from across Gujarat, and there was not a single woman among them. When women are 50 percent in population, such thing is unacceptable.&rdquo;
Gandhi also unveiled the party&rsquo;s revised funding model. &ldquo;Instead of giving financial support three months before elections, we will create a corpus and give fund to district to run the party there.&rdquo;&nbsp;
He said that district presidents would also be required to raise funds locally. &ldquo;The district presidents will also contribute to party fund by starting fund-raising activities and that would also be measured.&rdquo;
The organizational revamp is part of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge&rsquo;s directive to make 2025 the &ldquo;year of organizational reforms,&rdquo; a plan reiterated during recent meetings of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in Ahmedabad last week.&nbsp;
Ajay Kumar Lallu, another senior Congress leader, described the effort as transformative. &ldquo;Gujarat is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. Rahul Gandhi ji is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. This new initiative by Rahul Gandhi will give a new direction to the party,&rdquo; he told reporters in Ahmedabad.
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Rahul Gandhi at Core Coordination Committee Meet in Aravalli

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April 16, 2025 | 14:53 IST