“The Congress must become the party of future in Tamil Nadu,” Congress president Sonia Gandhi said here on Saturday.
Carefully avoiding even a mention of the word DMK in her 20-minute-long “inspirational” speech at the party rally organised at defence grounds to celebrate the party’s 1
25th anniversary and Rajiv’s birth anniversary, Mrs Gandhi said, “In Tamil Nadu, we are in alliance, we respect alliance, but what is most important is that we must rebuild the party from the grassroots.”
“We must work to recapture our distinctive identity and we must become the party of future in Tamil Nadu,” she emphasised, describing the huge crowd turnout as a “new beginning of the Congress history in Tamil Nadu”.
“I am touched to see the kind of crowd that we saw in the past when we were here with Rajivji and Moopanarji,” the Congress chief said, adding that, “I hope… I hope… or I should say I know this is the new beginning of Congress history in Tamil Nadu.”
“We must rebuild the Congress in Tamil Nadu,” she affirmed and advised the cadres and leaders to go village by village and tell people about the slew of UPA schemes.
She urged youngsters, senior and middle-level leaders and cadres to work together to strengthen the Congress in TN.
“TN gave us the largest number of seats for which I am grateful to the people of the state,” she said.
Mrs Gandhi was so impressed by the huge turnout that she twice mentioned that she was touched by it.
An overwhelmed Mrs Gandhi walked the length of the open space in front of the dais and even climbed on to the first layer of the wooden fence thrice, waved and collected a couple of shawls from the crowd.
She sprung a surprise by standing from the car and waving to the cadres before leaving.