Rahul's non-election visit gives Gujarat Congress some long-missing mojo

A lot seems to have changed for the Gujarat Congress with the recent visit of Rahul Gandhi, party MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP), to the state.

Party workers in Gujarat gave Rahul a rousing welcome, hugely surprised as they were.

Bajrang Dal attack

The Rae Bareli MP, who had been visiting the western state only around election time till then, surprised everyone with his ‘out of turn’ visit to meet Congress workers arrested in a clash with BJP and Bajrang Dal members at the party office in Ahmedabad.

The visit came after Bajrang Dal members attacked the Ahmedabad Congress office on July 2, hours after Rahul had delivered a fiery speech in Parliament critiquing the BJP's claim to speak for the Hindus of India. Rahul had targeted the BJP by saying “those who call themselves Hindus indulge in hate and violence round the clock”.

The following day, Bajrang Dal and VHP and BJP workers had pelted stones at the Congress office in Ahmedabad and clashed with Congress party workers.

Reviving spirit to fight

Nearly two weeks later, Rahul’s sudden visit has infused the state Congress with a kind of confidence that has been missing of late among party workers.

Shaktisinh Gohil, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president, told The Federal, “The spirit to fight has been revived even though we lost all four assembly constituencies, where bypolls were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls, to turncoats. However, Geniben’s recent Lok Sabha win and Rahul Gandhi’s visit has infused the party workers and leaders with the much-needed enthusiasm to fight and revive the party in Gujarat.”

“Amongst many grievances of the local leaders is that Gujarat is neglected by the central leadership since it is believed that we cannot win a seat here. But the narrative has changed with Geniben’s win and it is turning heads among the central leadership as well,” Gohil added.

Congress morale at lowest

Gautam Sah, a sociologist and political analyst talking, too, agreed that Rahul’s visit holds great importance for Gujarat Congress leaders and workers.

Speaking to The Federal, Sah said the morale of the Congress leaders and workers has been very low since the 2017 state polls.

“Congress had been losing one election after the other since 2017, including its strongholds in local, civic and dairy cooperative polls. The 2022 state poll defeat was crushing as the party won only 17 of the 182 seats, marking it as Congress’s worst performance in Gujarat. Later, the Congress was denied the official position of the Opposition in the legislative assembly. This was perhaps the lowest the party could get in the history of Gujarat’s electoral politics,” he said.

Yatra miss

What’s more, Sah said, the morale in the state unit was at its lowest when Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra decided not to pass through Gujarat ahead of the 2022 state polls.

“At a time when workers needed a morale boost, they were left in a lurch without leadership. At the same time, MLAs and senior leaders kept defecting to the BJP. The Congress lost all four assembly bypolls to its own defected leaders. The defections have opened up the space in the party for the middle-rung aspirational brass of leadership to cause infighting, while the lower rank workers remain directionless,” observed the political analyst.

Further, he continued, “However, the party’s performance improved in the Lok Sabha election. Victory in the lone Banaskantha constituency broke the BJP’s decade-old trend of sweeping all the 26 Lok Sabha seats. Though the BJP ended up leading in 160 assembly segments in the state, its vote share in over 40 segments went down, particularly in the rural areas that have been Congress strongholds until 2022.”

Tackling defections

Gohil also felt the mood in this Lok Sabha election was different this time. Moreover, Gohil pointed out that Rahul, who is not only a key leader of the party but the LoP in the Lok Sabha, for the first time addressed the issue of leaders defecting to the BJP. He told the leaders that Priyanka Gandhi and he will stand by the leaders who chose to be loyal to the party, added Gohil.

Imran Khedawala, an MLA from Jamalpur Khadiya in Ahmedabad also felt Rahul’s sudden visit to Gujarat seems to have left some sort of a lasting impression on party workers, who are used to such high-profile visits only before an election.

Also, Khedawala said, “We 12 Congress MLAs are prepared to fight hard and no one else is going to leave. Rahul Gandhi met us and ensured that we should strengthen ourselves and no else will leave.”

However, the MLA felt that Rahul needs to give regular attention to matters in Gujarat.

A Congress leader from Saurashtra pointed out that “one sudden visit will not suffice but regular interactions are needed to keep the senior leadership on track”.

“In Gujarat, Congress has to build itself to be a credible alternative to BJP,” said the Congress leader.

Rousing speech

Notably, Rahul arrived in Ahmedabad amid a tense environment post clashes but he got a huge reception. In an unexpected scene, Congress workers and supporters thronged the street leading to the party headquarters as Rahul addressed the crowd from the window of GPCC president’s office on the first floor of Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan.

‘Daro mat, darao mat’ (don’t scare others, don’t get scared yourself), declared Rahul to the cheering crowd. “Congress will break their government like they broke our office…,” added Rahul in his fiery speech.

On his two-day tour of the state, Rahul also met victims of three tragedies in Gujarat that were a result of administrative lapses – the Morbi river bridge collapse that killed 135 people, mostly children in October 2022; the Harni lake boat capsize in Vadodara, in which 14 people, including 12 children, died in January 2024 and the Rajkot TRP Gaming Zone fire incident, in which over 30 children and youth were burnt to death in May 2024.