Last Updated:
Sources said the Congress has planned a ‘padyatra’ in West Bengal for senior leader Rahul Gandhi while the state unit, which is in a state of disarray, has been asked to gear up
The TMC has been unforgiving towards the Congress and made it clear that it wants its boss, Mamata Banerjee, to be the face of the INDIA bloc. (Image: PTI/File)
It looks like senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is finally having his way. After Delhi, the grand old party has set its sights on West Bengal and plans are afoot to take on another INDIA bloc ally.
When he joined active politics in 2004, Rahul Gandhi was appointed incharge of youth affairs. He firmly believed in the concept of ‘Ekla Chalo Re’, or the party must stand alone, unlike his mother Sonia Gandhi, who was the architect of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). While this was an experiment with coalition politics by the Congress, Rahul has always felt that the party can only grow when it fights alone.
Within his circle, he had often told party colleagues that standing alone would help in the long run even if the party lost elections. But, after multiple failures and his desire to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi made him reconcile to the idea of coalition politics.
But, after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul began to realise that while INDIA bloc parties were becoming stronger, the Congress was losing out. It was no longer possible for the party to be victorious, where it was in a straight fight with the BJP. Losses in Haryana and Maharashtra made him rethink and, that is why, after much flip-flop, he gave the green signal to take on the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.
Now that the AAP has lost the Delhi assembly election and allies like the Samajwadi Party and the National Conference have blamed the Congress, the party remains defiant. The next focus is on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal, which has continued to snub the Congress.
The TMC has been unforgiving and further made it clear that it wants its boss, Mamata Banerjee, to be the face of the INDIA bloc. According to sources, the Congress has planned a ‘padyatra’ for Rahul while the state unit, which is in a state of disarray, has been asked to gear up.
The party does not have a single MP in the state now as Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the lone warrior against Mamata, lost his last election.
Sources further said Rahul plans to visit Bengal after the Parliament session and is likely to spend a couple of days with party workers to reassure them that a fight against Mamata is on. It was felt that if the Congress was losing out state after state, its national stature could be affected and, with this, it will no longer be an alternative to the BJP.
The Congress said taking on allies at the state level does not mean that the alliance is over at the national level, but this is merely an argument and the party’s ambitions, which may be difficult to gulp down. But, as of now, Rahul is convinced that state units across India need a wake-up call.