Rahul Gandhi to lead Congress offensive in Gujarat polls

New Delhi: After defeating the might of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat in August, the Congress now plans to mount an offensive for the Assembly elections slated for the end of this year. The Congress had been decimated in the last three Assembly elections of 2003, 2007 and 2012. But now it plans to reverse the trend, especially when Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister and is no longer the candidate for the post of CM in Gujarat.

Essentially, the Congress feels that the elections in Gujarat have been won by taking up polarising topics. Hence, the party will ensure that no topic in the public is to be mentioned that may even remotely invite the tag of it being an anti-majority party. It wants to repeat the performance it had in Bihar, where votes were not polled on communal lines.

The Congress is banking heavily on the almost 18 years of anti-incumbency of the BJP and the unhappiness of the influential Patel community. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, once back from his trip to the United States of America, will kickstart the Gujarat election campaign from Dwarka. Mr Gandhi will be visiting the temple of Lord Krishna to seek divine blessings for start of the Congress campaign. He will also be visiting one of the ‘Dandiya’ function in Saurashtra. He would be visiting Dwarka, Jamnagar and Rajkot. The Congress has divided the state into four zones, Saurashtra and Kutch, North Gujarat, Central Gujarat and South Gujarat.

Meanwhile, Former chief minister of Gujarat and former Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela has now announced support to a third front ‘Jan Sankalp’. The front will support candidates from parties other than the Congress and the BJP. Interestingly, for the first time, this will ensure that a two-corner contest in the state will turn into a three corner contest.