Congress gears up for state polls, calls series of meets

On July 1, the Congress has called Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his rival, senior leader Sachin Pilot for a meeting

New Delhi: Switching to poll mode, the Congress has called a series of meetings with state and central leaders ahead of the upcoming assembly elections later this year, widely considered as a virtual semifinal before Lok Sabha elections next year, said people aware of developments.

The Congress has called a series of meetings with state and central leaders ahead of the upcoming assembly elections later this year. (ANI)

On July 1, the party has called Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his rival, senior leader Sachin Pilot for a meeting, the people cited above added.

The inclusion of Pilot in strategising for the upcoming Rajasthan elections underlines the party brass’s eagerness to put its house in order before the polls and give Pilot, who rebelled against Gehlot in December 2020, an opportunity to contribute to the party’s prospects, a senior Congress leader said.

Pilot is expected to be given a key role in campaign management but his loyalists say that amicable resolution of the issues he raised should be prioritised. “We fought for disbanding of the public service commission, financial help for victims of paper leak in job exams, and probe into corruption of the previous regime,” a leader loyal to Pilot said.

The party had projected unity after a meeting in Delhi of the two leaders with the central leadership last month, announcing that Gehlot and Pilot would fight the next assembly elections unitedly.

Four large states —Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh — are going to the polls later this year. On Tuesday, the strategy group on Telangana met to discuss preparations. According to a senior leader aware of developments, a possible reshuffle at the block and district committees of the party’s Telangana unit was discussed at length.

A number of senior leaders also joined the Congress, announced Pawan Khera, the party’s chairman of media and publicity. “There are winds of change flowing across the country. The result was seen in Karnataka and those winds are now flowing towards the other assemblies, which are going into elections including a very important state of Telangana,” he added.

Revanth Reddy, Telangana Congress unit president, said, “We met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and our leader Rahul Gandhi. Next we all will work together to defeat the BRS and the BJP in Telangana.”

The meetings for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are expected in the next two days.

In 2018, the Congress won Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But its government in Madhya Pradesh collapsed in 2020 after Jyotiraditya Scindia, now the Union civil aviation and steel minister, quit the Congress with his loyalists.