2014 on mind, Cong to work on state-level ties

A section in the Congress has started talking about getting rebels like Jaganmohan Reddy back into the fold to help repair the party in Andhra Pradesh.

A section in the Congress has started talking about getting rebels like Jaganmohan Reddy back into the fold to help repair the party in Andhra Pradesh.

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This will also help the party to groom or give a free hand to regional leaders to revive the organisation in their states and help the Congress come to power at the Centre in 2014.

This view calls for projecting Beni Prasad Verma in UP to help add the Kurmi vote to the Muslim support that is already coming from AICC leader Digvijaya Singh’s strong denunciation of the RSS-BJP-VHP and the possible backing from uppercastes.

It accords primacy to Virbhadra Singh in Himachal Pradesh, Ajit Jogi in Chhattisgarh and Amarinder Singh in Punjab.

The party has Sheila Dikshit in Delhi, Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, Tarun Gogoi in Assam, AK Antony, Oommen Chandy and even Ramesh Chennitala in Kerala and powerful, if not mass leaders, in Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde in Maharashtra.

The party does not have credible mass leader in over half a dozen states, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa and even West Bengal.

There are also calls for a tie up with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.