Rahul Gandhi may visit state during Durga Puja

Kolkata: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has asked the party’s West Bengal unit to strengthen the organisation in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, is likely to visit the state during Durga Puja, a senior state Congress leader said Monday.

Mr Gandhi had held a meeting with the newly appointed Bengal Congress leadership, led by state Congress president Somen Mitra, on Saturday in New Delhi and discussed the organisational and upcoming election issues.

It was at the meeting that the proposal for Gandhi’s visit to Bengal during Durga Puja — the biggest festival of Bengal, came up, according to state Congress sources.

“The schedule is being chalked out. Nothing has been finalised as of now. We hope that he will visit the city for a day during Puja,” Congress MP and chairman of the coordination committee Pradip Bhattacharya said.

Plagued by defections and infighting, the new Bengal Congress leadership is planning to revamp party organisation in districts in a bid to strengthen the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a senior party leader said.

“We have been asked to strengthen party organisation. We know we have very little time left as Lok Sabha polls are just a few months away. We hope that we would able to strengthen our party and fight elections on our own strength,” Mr Bhattacharya said.

According to another state Congress leader, Gandhi had asked party leaders to start building opinion among people about the Rafale deal.

“We have been asked to create opinion about the Rafale scam in Bengal. We will reach out to the masses both physically and through social media,” the leader said.