After the successful election campaign that saw the Congress coming to power at the Centre, party chief Sonia Gandhi is going back to doing her trademark roadshows, only this time to strengthen the party and expand its base.
Sonia is all set to relaunch the Jan Sampark Abhiyans across the country, most likely from June. This is part of the Congress strategy to revive the party cadre with a state-wise plan for the organisation which senior leaders stress would now become ‘‘a regular feature of her plans’’.
Her programme is expected to be aimed at Maharashtra mainly, as part of the preparations for the coming Assembly elections. Though the Congress is part of a coalition with the NCP, the effort would be to maximise its performance in the polls.
The roadshows will be also planned for states that have shown better prospects for the Congress, like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. In these states, Sonia’s effort would be to finetune the party machinery and consolidate the favourable atmosphere for the party.
She is also expected to visit states where the party’s performance has not improved like Bihar and UP. For these states, the Congress is also planning to bring in younger leaders to build the party from scratch.