 "Rahul hits out at party leaders for sychophancy")
Gandhi also took a dig at Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna for demanding that Gandhi be named the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections. “I do not want to hear such a thing again. Go and strengthen your party organisation first,” Gandhi said to Bahuguna, in front of all the assembled leaders.
Issuing deadlines of two months to party chiefs to revamp the district- and block-level structures, Gandhi asked them to “move out of their offices” for at least ten days a month and interact with the ground-level workers.
Gandhi’s core message to the 45 assembled leaders was to “strengthen the organisation at the ground level.” “It is the block president who is the party’s messenger to the people, spreading the message about the government schemes and programmes,” said Gandhi.
He urged the chiefs to “put up effective candidates at the ground level so that they can spread the Congress’ message to the people.”
Asking state party chiefs to work in a time-bound manner, Gandhi said he would be reviewing the organisational strengthening exercise with each chiefs in the next two - three months.
To ensure “there should not be any communication gap”, he assured party leaders he would constantly be in touch with them, regularly through the Internet or the phone.
Among the crucial issues that surfaced at the meeting were the issues of alliances in poll going states. West Bengal, which goes into Panachayat polls this year, made clear they preferred “going it alone.” WB PCC chief Pradeep Bhattacharya recounted the bitter experience with former ally TMC and said that despite the Left wanting to ally with them, the local Congress was in favour of going it alone in the polls.
Reiterating his message at the party’s Chintan Shivir last month, Gandhji spoke of “accountability with responsibility,” indicating that those senior leaders who recommend candidates for tickets would also have to be accountable for their performance.