Rahul Gandhi not to head Gujarat polls campaign

NEW DELHI: With the assembly elections to Uttar Pradesh turning out to be disastrous for Rahul Gandhi, Congress appears to be wary of converting the coming Gujarat election into a Rahul versus Narendra Modi contest and even making him the chief campaigner.

"Every state election is fought on the basis of local issues. Congress state unit is well equipped to fight the Gujarat elections," said Manish Tewari, when asked whether Rahul Gandhi would campaign for Congress candidates in the state. This is certain to be interpreted by Congress' rivals as an admission of an imminent defeat in the elections.

But this will be morale sapping for Congress workers in Gujarat, as they were expecting the Congress leadership to take its fight against Modi to its logical conclusion. If the response of the Congress spokesman is anything to go by, the central leadership is not quite sure of the political profit from a high-profile campaign.

Congress' caution is understandable as Rahul exhausted a significant share of political capital in the UP election. Gandhi, who had converted the election into a referendum on his leadership, proved to be disastrous when the party was pushed to the margins.

Unlike the last assembly election in Gujarat, when Sonia Gandhi began her party's campaign by hurling an invective - merchant of death - against Modi, Congress has said that it would concentrate on contesting the development agenda of the state government. "On June 19, Congress MPs met CVC and gave a representation with 750 pages of documents on various scams amounting to 1 lakh crore. Is Modi talking about the same Gujarat model he wants us to emulate? There is one Gujarat which is the real Gujarat and one is the mythical Gujarat which Modi and BJP want to present to the world. Had Gujarat model been so great, Keshubhai would not have been standing separately," party spokesman Tewari said.