Party on a high over Rahul visit

Besides addressing the rally,Rahul will also visit the party office and meet the state leadership — including those from the Seva Dal and the Youth Congress. Sonia Gandhi will visit Kolkata on September 25 to attend the AICC’s eastern zonal conference.

“His presence will rejuvenate the Congress in the state,” said Bhuniya. “We expect the visits of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will help boost workers’ morale ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections.”

Regarding Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement that armed CPM cadres are setting up camps in different parts of Junglemahal,Bhuniya said on Monday,he will hand over an agenda note to Rahul on the overall political situation of West Bengal.

“If the Maoists are outlawed because they murder people,what do we call CPM cadres?” he said. “If necessary,the offices of all political parties should be searched over there. But something must be done about the issue.”

Bhuniya said after his visit,Rahul will go to Keshpur to meet a delagation of people rendered homeless because of political clashes. Thereafter,he will visit Goaltore and Garbeta in West Midnapore district.

Over the past few weeks,at least 42 legislators from across India have been deputed by Rahul Gandhi to prepare a political status report on the Congress and the Youth Congress at the ground level in West Bengal. Eleven zonal coordinators have been criss-crossing each block of the state to create awareness about the membership drive. The zonal coordinators include Union ministers Jitin Prasada and Sachin Pilot and party MP Mohammad Azharuddin.

The exercise was aimed at creating a streamlined,elected,talented and youthful leadership from the grassroots to the top with a clear chain of command,say party leaders in the state. The target is to enroll 10 to 15 lakh youths as members of the state Youth Congress.

“It is not correct to say the Congress in the state is moribund,” Bhuniya said. “In the 2006 Assembly elections,Congress won 21 Assembly seats as against the Trinamool Congress’s 29.”

In 2009,only a third of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats were left for the Congress to contest after the seat-sharing deal with the Trinamool. “The Congress sacrificed a lot and did not get a seat within 200 kms of Kolkata. We,however,accepted it as the people of Bengal wanted us to to fight together to free the state from the clutches of Marxist misrule,” he said.

With PTI inputs