A faction-ridden ruling Congress party in Maharashtra is putting up a show of unity during the visit of party president Sonia Gandhi at Sevagram in Wardha district, on October 15. Sevagram has been chosen as Mahatma Gandhi had stayed there in the 1930s during the country’s freedom struggle.
The Congress president will address a rally, which will be attended by all factions that were recently pitted against each other during the elections to the party’s state and Mumbai unit chiefs.
The state unit has, however, asked to Gandhi to take suitable decisions in this regard. The public rally coincides with the state party units’ Zenda March (Congress Flag March) across the Maharashtra. All blocks, talukas and district-level units were asked to hoist maximum party flags on houses and felicitate freedom fighters in order to remember the contribution made by them and party workers under the same flag during India’s freedom struggle.
The proposed rally, which is taking place after about 15 days when Sonia along with the Prime Minister had launched the government’s Aadhaar scheme in Nandurbar district, is also being planned to send a strong signal to party leaders and members to work towards rejuvenating the party organisation across the state.
“Party posts and ministerships are not a big thing. They will anyway get but what is crucial is the party’s ideals and principles on which it has spread across the country. The Zenda March was a unique attempt made by the state unit during the 125th anniversary of the Congress party. Nearly 2.5 million party flags were hoisted by respective units across the state in their respective working areas. Efforts will be made to broaden the organisational base from gram panchayat level to the levels of assembly and parliamentary constituencies,” state party unit president Manikrao Thakre told Business Standard.
Thakre said even though the Congress party had won 82 seats in the Assembly, 25 Lok Sabha seats and couple of seats in local self-governments, its organisational base needed to be strengthened by inducting more youths.
A Congress minister, who did not want to be quoted, said all factions would have to bury hatchets to strengthen the organisational base. “One thing is quite clear that the Congress has increased its presence in Maharashtra but it cannot simply dump the alliance partner NCP which is its strongholds. Thus, during the next four years all efforts will have to be made to make the party organisationally strong enough to contest the next Assembly elections in 2014 on its own,” he noted.
