After four-hour-long marathon meeting on Rajasthan, the Congress on Thursday asserted that it will fight the Assembly elections unitedly and said that it will launch its election campaign in the state from Friday.
The party also said that it will field candidates on the basis of the winnability as the party is carrying out several surveys and the list of candidates will be announced in September.
Addressing a press conference after the crucial meeting, chaired by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, and attended by former party chief Rahul Gandhi and several others, party General Secretary, Organisation, K.C. Venugopal said: “Today we had a meeting over the poll preparation in Rajasthan which was chaired by Kharge and attended by Rahul Gandhi, Chief MInister Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and over 29 leaders from the state.”
He said that the meeting was to discuss poll preparedness in Rajasthan and the party has taken several important decisions.
“A house-to-house campaign in Rajasthan will start tomorrow (Friday). Our ministers, MLAs, leaders and ground workers will engage with all communities and social groups during the next 90 days. Discussions will be held on the party manifesto as well as the achievements of the Congress government in Rajasthan.”
Venugopal said that the party is confident that it will win in Rajasthan.
“We will select the candidates on winnability basis. In the first week of September, we will decide the Congress candidates for the Rajasthan election. It will be quiet advance announcements. Therefore, today’s meeting was very important and fruitful. This is the fifth meeting… we are doing advance preparation. We had done Chhattisgharh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram. So election campaign will start from tomorrow and we are in full form and we will defeat the BJP,” he said.
The Congress leader also said that party and government coordination will be strengthened in the state.
Venugopal further said that 29 leaders from Rajasthan participated in today’s meeting including Gehlot and Pilot.
“Everybody unanimously decided to win Rajasthan and we can win easily if we have total unity. And everybody unanimously decided that we will fight unitedly among the Rajasthan Congress,” he said giving a hint of ending the differences between Gehlot and Pilot in the state.
He said that earlier there was differences but in Thursday’s meeting, the specialty was that every leader decided to fight unitedly. “And our government will work in positive direction as the pro-people schemes are very good and the government was trying to make them reach to every class of the society,” he said.
Venugopal said that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra had huge impact in Rajasthan and entire situation in the state changed whereas Karnataka victory has also given a clear message.
Asked about who will be the party’s face in the state, he said: “We never announce our chief ministerial candidate. We will decide after election, the government has done a very good work and the work will give result.”
To a question about Pilot’s role in the state and his demands for action against the corruption of previous BJP government led by Vasundhra Raje and also on the paper leak issue, the Congress leader said: “That is the general thing. It is general apprehension of the people of Rajasthan. For RPSC nomination, we are going to fix good criteria and on question paper leak issue, we are going to bring law with more strict punishment. Pilot was also in the meeting and he spoke very well in the meeting and also said that the we are going to win in the state.”
By agreeing to the demands of Pilot, the Congress clearly gave a hint that it has reached a formula between Gehlot and Pilot, who had earlier open fronts against each other in the state.
Venugopal also warned the party leaders to keep their issues on the party platform instead of speaking publicly. “From today onwards we will follow strict discipline and no one will be allowed to speak outside. If anyone speaks outside then therer will be disciplinary action,” he said.
Congress’ Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said, “Our meeting lasted for 4 hours and all the leaders were there. Everyone got the opportunity to speak and all said that we will fight unitedly and defeat the BJP. They all said that there will be a single face and we are united. We will leave the past and will focus on future.”
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