Rahul interacts with Cong cadres

In his ongoing exercise to galvanise party cadres ahead of 2014 parliamentary elections, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi today held extensive interaction with grassroots workers from Western Maharashtra, Konkan and Marathwada.
Rahul, who arrived here last night from Nagpur on the last leg of his two-day tour of Maharashtra, gave a morale boosting address at the closed-door meeting of block-level party workers, sources said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and MPCC President Manikrao Thakre were present at Balewadi sports city, about 20 km from here, but did not participate in the session which Rahul initiated exclusively with the grassroots activists, sources added.

According to some supporters of suspended local Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, they submitted a memorandum to Rahul urging him to revoke his suspension. This was, however, denied by Thakre.
Rahul, who was given an enthusiastic welcome by party workers, mixed freely with them exchanging ideas and motivating them to ensure a convincing Congress victory in the 2014 polls, a party functionary said.
According to party sources, when Congress workers expressed their desire to fight elections independently without pact with Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Rahul asked them to work for an absolute majority so that Congress could do without the support of coalition partners.

There was, however, no official briefing on the day-long deliberations.
During his one-on-one interaction with grassroots workers from Vidarbha region in Nagpur yesterday, Rahul reportedly encouraged them to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections which are due in some states.
According to some party functionaries in Nagpur, Rahul had observed that factionalism was a major hurdle for the party preparing for elections.