In the aftermath of Gujarat's bleed from the Cong, there is a silver lining: new blood

On the third day of Chintan Shibir in Dwarka, the Congress sent a transparent message to the leaders who left Gujarat's social gathering. In light of the departure of at least ten senior leaders in the past few weeks, many of them switching sides to the BJP, senior leader Rahul Gandhi invoked the Mahabharata to refer to such defectors as "Kauravas" who are more than welcome to leave, and that the Congress could win with just five good leaders (possibly Pandavas).

Likewise, AICC basic secretary in-charge Raghu Sharma said that those not adhering to party discipline ought to leave.

For Congress, Gujarat has been a battle since the 2017 Assembly elections, during which a victory did appear possible for a while, yet February was one of their worst months in that state. Among the leading figures that left the social gathering for the Bharatiya Janata Party on the date of February 17 and 27 are former spokesperson Jayrajsinh Parmar, two-time former MLA from Lunawada Hirabhai Patel, former Mehsana Congress president Rajendrasinh Darbar, and ex-chief of the opposition within the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Dinesh Sharma.

A BJP poster welcoming Sharma to the fold had been displayed at crossroads in Ahmedabad, where CR Paatil dismissed Congress turncoats as inconsequential to the party's plans. The BJP also recently inducted six corporators of the Aam Aadmi Social gathering (AAP), which shocked everyone by picking up seats within the February 2021 municipal elections, together with the AIMIM, regardless of the two events having almost no organizational foundation in Gujarat.

Rahul Gandhi's remarks illustrate the Congress's understanding that the Gujarat vote is a desire for change - the state has now been run by the BJP since 1995. In his speech, he advised party members to consider another option for the social gathering, and hinted that other people in Gujarat have been trying to contact the Congress, but that they have not been clear about "what the Congress needs to do, the way it needs to go about it and who're the folks driving it to attain these objectives".

Many see the exits as one more attack on the beleaguered Social gathering. However, Congress sources say the value of those leaders to the BJP is more about optics than anything else. The 10 who left lately are a lot lighter than the losses before last year's Rajya Sabha elections, when Shankersinh Vaghela and 13 other MLAs left, or when Sagar Rayka joined the BJP.

In fact, some congressmen believe that the exits will create more space for the brand new management. Taking aim at the Chintan Shibir, Raghu Sharma stated that the social gathering should "change the way in which it fights elections". Calling for "new blood", he said that people trying to stop them would be "wrong".

The move was also a signal to the previous guard, at a time when a number of high-profile leaders have been inducted into the party because of Gandhi's intervention. These embody Hardik Patel, who led the 2015 Patidar agitation, and Dalit chief Jignesh Mevani.

Gandhi's significance to Patel and Mevani has frustrated the previous guard. Gandhi had attempted to solve this problem by inviting 23 Gujarat Congress leaders, together with Mevani, to Delhi for one-on-one discussions about the difficulties they faced in the gathering, on October 22, last year.

In December final yr, the Congress did the balancing act by appointing two veterans to prime posts — OBC chief Jagdish Thakor as Gujarat Congress president and tribal chief Sukhram Rathva as Chief of the Opposition within the Meeting – changing younger leaders Amit Chavda and Paresh Dhanani.

"What Rahul Gandhi mentioned on the Chintan Shibir was with excessive readability. He needs such folks within the Congress to return up who work for the social gathering. A transparent message has additionally been despatched to senior leaders that he stands shoulder to shoulder with all of the hardworking social gathering employees," Manish Doshi, Gujarat Congress spokesperson, cited.

Doshi commented on the Kaurava jibe: "Rahul spoke within the context of warfare between dharma and adharma, satya and asatya in Mahabharata. He spoke concerning the individuals who wish to combat for the Congress, saying they need to be given precedence, as a substitute of those that do not want to put up a combat. His message was that when you want to keep within the social gathering, it's a must to combat collectively."

In spite of the fact that this is merely a baby step at the moment, Congress leaders hope this reinvention will keep AAP out of Gujarat. As Arvind Kejriwal's social gathering targets states where the BJP and Congress have traditionally been in a twin race, any gains Made by it are likely to further undermine the Congress inside those states.

AIMIM and the AAP "fragmentation of votes" is not good for either the BJP or the Congress, say social gathering sources."Gujarat has at all times been a battle between the BJP and Congress, there isn't any room for a 3rd pressure," a pacesetter said.