Rahul Gandhi's Gujarat visit raises hopes, but workers stay wary

While Congress leader Rahul Gandhi infused some anticipation among party workers in Gujarat with his aggressive posturing during his last visit to the state, several senior and mid-level workers remain sceptical about the outcome.

Gandhi had accused a big section of party leaders and workers of being hand in glove with the ruling BJP. “So long we don’t differentiate these two (genuine Congress workers and the ones who are compromised) very clearly, people of Gujarat will not be able to believe us. People of Gujarat want an opposition and not a B-team,” he had said. “My responsibility is to sieve these two groups.”

A Congress functionary told ET on condition of anonymity that while Gandhi’s comments resonated with the general demands of party workers, he ended up meeting the same set of leaders that has been consistently delivering defeats to the Congress over the past two decades. “He did meet the district presidents. But who were they? They are the same group of people who have been appointed by the state leadership and have largely been inactive at best, or dealing with the BJP at worst,” the functionary said.


The functionary further said, “Over a period of time, the state leadership has managed to convince the high command that the Patidars are against the Congress in Gujarat. But what about the other savarna groups? Congress party, which used to represent everyone, has lost its way into identity politics since Madhavsinh Solanki’s time and has not corrected its course ever since.”

For the principal opposition in the state, it is clearly a moment of “perform or perish”, said a cross-section of party members.

While the Congress rode the Patidar agitation in 2017 to reduce the BJP to its worst performance in two decades, it went on to induct Hardik Patel and made him the working president of the party in spite of Patel’s known proximity to the BJP and RSS affiliates. Patel eventually jettisoned the Congress for the BJP, as did Alpesh Thakor, who too was initially lapped up by the Congress.

“No one has ever been held accountable for these misadventures and in the process, it is the brand image of the party that has taken a beating,” said the functionary.

Several Congress workers alleged that a section of state leadership has been ensuring that the party remains embroiled in the “social engineering” quagmire so as to limit the possibility of induction of fresh blood in the leadership. “It is the same set of leaders who clearly cocoon Rahulji at all times and it is almost impossible for ordinary workers to reach him, More often than not, the state in-charge too is not reachable. So where does a committed worker go? Eventually one gets tired and lays down the arms,” said a senior worker, who did not wish to be identified.

Yet another senior party functionary said that with most of the senior leaders having parted ways with the party, the possibility of ushering in a drastic change in the party leadership is slim. “Where is the option? We don’t really have too many senior leaders left and will have to make do with all that we got,” he said.

Meanwhile, the incumbent Pradesh Congress Committee president Shaktisinh Gohil has said in media interviews that the party leadership has not told him anything about a change of leadership and has put faith in him.

“In politics, there are spoken words and then there are actions,” said a former senior leader of the party, who did not wish to be identified. “Rahulji’s statements have assuaged the anger of the general party workers, but does he really mean what he said? That only the actions will decide.”