The Week India – July 21, 2019

40 THE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019

POLITICS

CONGRESS

AS RAHUL GANDHI arrived to meet

party workers, it poured in Ame-

thi—the gloomy weather reflecting

the mood in the Congress. It was his

first visit to the constituency since his

shocking defeat to BJP’s Smriti Irani

in the Lok Sabha polls.

A few hundred party workers at-

tended the meeting on July 9, braving

the incessant rains to reach Nirmala

Institute of Women’s Education in

Gauriganj. The perfunctory slogans

in praise of Rahul were raised as he

walked in. But the feeling of dejection

was unmistakable on both ends of

the dais.

Those who attended the closed-

door meeting said Rahul smiled, but

his face betrayed a deep sense of

hurt. He spoke with a lot of emotion,

they said, assuring workers that his

association with Amethi was intact

despite the defeat. “Sadak se sansad

tak aapki ladai ladunga, aapke mud-

don ko uthata rahunga (I will fight on

your behalf, from the streets to Parlia-

ment. I will keep raising your issues),”

he told them. “Whenever you need

me, I will be here, be it day or night.”

On his first visit to Amethi post his

defeat, Rahul Gandhi calls for collective

responsibility and organisational revamp

BY SONI MISHRA/Amethi

Flaw and

order

He described his visit to Amethi as

“homecoming”, underlining the tra-

ditional connect the Gandhi family

has had with the constituency. In

return, workers implored him to

stay on as Congress president.

While the main aim behind

the visit was to reassure workers

about his continued association

with Amethi, Rahul firmly told

local functionaries that the defeat

reflected on them as much as it did

on him, and that they, too, had to

shoulder the responsibility for the

loss. He also hinted at the need for a

change in the way the organisation

worked here.

Around 25 party workers spoke

at the meeting that lasted an hour

and a half, and many of them

complained against office-bear-

ers at the district level, saying that

they got into election mode only

about 10 days before polling. There

was a huge disconnect between

office-bearers and workers and the

opponent was taken lightly, they

said. Also, a constant refrain was

about how the administration had

been hostile to them. The meeting,

which was expected to last around

three hours, was cut short as angry

workers raised slogans against local

leaders, including former district

president Yogendra Mishra and

Chandrakant Dubey, Rahul’s repre-

sentative in Amethi.

“Rahulji was right in saying that

he was let down by the organi-

sation,” said party worker Anand

Pratap Singh from Salon. “Those

who call the shots in Amethi are

complacent and have conduct-

ed the election campaign over

phone. They did not bother to visit

the villages.” Irani’s team, on the

other hand, fanned out all over the

constituency, building an extensive

network in villages and promoting

the Modi government’s schemes for

rural India, said Sudhanshu Singh, a

Youth Congress functionary.

After trying to blame the Sama-

jwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj

Party of non-cooperation, faulting

electronic voting machines and

even accusing the BJP of using

pressure tactics, the Congress is