Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to blow the bugle for the Rajasthan Assembly elections with a visit to Jaipur on August 11. The Gandhi scion’s visit to Jaipur is aimed at two major issues – ensuring organisational unity within Congress party and paving a way into the BJP stronghold in Rajasthan.
Notably, it was in Jaipur six years back that Rahul Gandhi was appointed the vice president of the Congress party. At that times, he had grabbed headlines for his remark saying power was like poison. And now as the Congress president, the Gandhi scion wants to get to the power corridors of Rajasthan, and then eventually the Centre, through the same place.
After Rahul Gandhi was made Congress vice president at an event in Jaipur in January 2013, the party registered its worst performance in the state by bagging just 21 seats in the Rajasthan Assembly elections held in December 2013.
Jaipur region in Rajasthan is believed to be a stronghold of the BJP. In the previous Assembly elections, the Congress was not able to win even one of the eight constituencies in the region. Even when the Congress came to power in 2008 Assembly elections, the party managed to win just 3 out of the 8 Assembly seats in Jaipur.
Rahul Gandhi wants the Congress to regain its strength in the region, and is focussing on strengthening the organisational structure within the party.
The Congress chief has visited Rajasthan on several occasions in the last five years. In 2014 he addressed a rally in Tonk Devli while in 2015 he visited Hanumangarh and Jaipur. He also addressed a Dalit meet in Jaipur in April 2016, and later in the same year, he went to Baran. In 2017 as well, Rahul Gandhi visited Rajasthan.
However, his repeated visits to the state have failed to yield any fruitful result for the Congress party. Reacting to his scheduled August 11 visit, the BJP has said that his visit would not matter as the people of the state are fed up with the grand old party.
