Cong is rallying’ to garner clout in State

Party chief Sonia Gandhi would address the proposed farmers rally while a dozen senior Congress big wigs from Delhi would attend the meeting.

According to MPCC sources here on Friday, party chief Sonia Gandhi, will also address one more rally in the state by next month. The venue of the proposed rally is yet to be finalised.

The MPCC is insisting that the party president should address a tribal meet in the state to consolidate tribal population in favour of the Congress. The party felt that a sizable tribal population had ditched the Congress and rooted for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), more so in the wake of their tribal leader, Madhukar Pichad, joining hands with Pawar.

While a section of the Congressmen are pressing for holding such a tribal rally in Melghat, a tribal area of Vidarbha in Amravati district, and which was in focus due to the large number of malnutrition deaths in the recent past, the chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, is insisting on holding it at Latur, his home district.

However, the party high command has made it clear that it would not be possible to hold such a rally either in Melghat or Latur. As Melghat comes in Vidarbha where Sonia had already addressed a gathering this month itself, the high command feels that another meeting in the region would be redundant. Again, a tribal rally is not possible at Latur as it does not fall in the tribal belt.

On the other hand, the MPCC chief, Govindrao Adik and the AICC general secretary and in-charge of Maharashtra, Motilal Vohra are in favour of holding such a rally either in Dhule or Nashik district, which are tribal dominated areas.

According to available information, both the leaders have succeeded in convincing the party chief Sonia to concentrate more in Maharashtra to marginalise the clout of Maratha warlord, Pawar. The party chief, who has expressed her satisfaction over the contributions of the Adik-Vohra duo in mobilising the people for the Nagpur rally and has reportedly given a green signal to organise more such rallies in the state to gear up the organisation.

The change of guard at the MPCC level, with Adik coming in place of Prataprao Bhonsale was the first indication that the Congress was taking Pawar’s onslaught’ seriously. Adik, a known Pawar-baiter, has taken the NCP head-on, in a bid to re-affirm his party’s clout in the State.

Besides, the strategy to hold more such rallies in the state is part of the long term game plan to consolidate the party votes in view of suspected mid-term elections of the state Assembly as inner-contradiction has widened between the principal allies — the Congress and the NCP ; and also among NCP members.