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Rajasthan Congress gears up for “thanksgiving”

JAIPUR: The ruling Congress party in Rajasthan is trying to turn the “thanksgiving” function scheduled to be addressed by party president Sonia Gandhi here next Tuesday into a campaign rally for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

As it is, the party has already held a “victory function” here to mark the return of the Congress to power in the State after the recent Assembly elections. That meeting, addressed by party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, however was confined to Congress MPs, MLAs and functionaries of the pradesh and district Congress committees.

The party men here surely are enthused by the good impact Mr. Gandhi could leave delivering the keynote address at the Rajasthan Police Academy at the review meeting of the police reform experiment carried out in the past jointly by the Rajasthan Police Department and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US. The general feeling here is that Mr. Gandhi conducted himself well at the interactive function responding to a wide range of questions from the participants who included policy-makers, both serving and retired, from the country’s bureaucracy.

“We want to make the upcoming rally a memorable event. There is a lot of enthusiasm among the workers on the party prospects in the coming Lok Sabha elections,” Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said talking about the rally.

“The rally means a lot to the party. It contains a message for the future,” said PCC president C. P. Joshi.

Stakes are high for the Congress in the coming polls in Rajasthan as its holds only four out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the State at present. The expectations too are high as the party has made a comeback, though without a clear majority this time. There is both hope and some nervousness among the party leaders on the Congress prospects as it was after winning the 2003 elections with a massive majority of more than 150 seats in a 200-strong Assembly it had performed dismally in the Lok Sabha polls.

A series of consultations are being held at the Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters these days on the rally and the prospective party candidates, as well as preparations for the coming elections. The first of the kind was addressed by Mr. Gehlot and Prof. Joshi on Wednesday.

More meetings are scheduled for Friday and Saturday in which various issues including developmental needs of nine Lok Sabha seats would be taken up. The rest of the constituencies would be discussed after Ms. Gandhi’s visit.

The venue for the rally will be Amriton Ka Bagh.

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