Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday virtually disapproved the strategy of “offering” Parliament and Assembly seats to new entrants from other parties.
The message is loud and clear, he would neither encourage nor welcome aayaram and gayarams for short term gains.
He is said to be working on setting up core group-like mechanism in each state. This consists of CLP leader (CM or the Leader of Opposition), PCC president and two to three senior leaders of the state. They will directly report to him about the ground situation and the developments in the state at regular intervals, sources said. Mr Gandhi who interacted with the party MPs from Maharashtra including Union ministers and the AICC general secretaries, secretaries from the state, made this clear.
According to sources, the young Gandhi was also surprised as to why the members of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), do not give their views on the elective merit of the aspirants candidly.
Sources further said Mr Gandhi said this could be because they (members) promise tickets to several aspirants.
He admitted that the party did not do justice to its MPs winning the Lok Sabha elections for six, seven or even nine terms.
The Congress party has accommodated several Shiv Sena rebels and made them MPs, ministers and party officials ignoring the party loyalists. Meanwhile, Union ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Pratik Patil, AICC general secretaries Mukul Wasnik and Vilas Muttemwar, former Union ministers Gurudas Kamat and Murli Deora, gave their views on the present and future challenges before the party.