Rahul Gandhi likely to visit western districts to strengthen party

Sources in Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) revealed that Rahul has planned to tour western districts this week to interact with representatives of various sectors apart from his party representatives.

The tour, which would be second in a week, would be an elaborate one covering at least a few districts. Congress leaders here admitted that the visit would be first of many the former national president of INC has planned to revive the party in the Dravidian hinterland.

Rahul, Congress sources disclosed, has an elaborate revival plan in mind for the state, apart from Kerala, which was among the very few the BJP finds difficult to decode electorally. A recent survey by the media could also have prompted the Congress boss to choose Tamil Nadu given that the state and Kerala were the only two states that gave him an edge over the BJP leaders.

“Our leaders believe the ground is fertile for Congress revival. Our national leadership believes the strong anti-BJP sentiment could be a shot in the arm for the party. The plan was mooted as early as the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Rahul had sensed support for Congress on the ground,” a Congress MP unwilling to be quoted said. adding that the leadership had chosen Coimbatore and surroundings also to counter its rival BJP, which has been working there for a while now.

Congress leaders believe the tour would also put to bed speculation about a rift in the DMK-Congress alliance, more so after the Dravidian party declared an alliance led by it in a rally on Monday in Puducherry which seems to threaten the alliance in Tamil Nadu.

Even if Rahul does not go public, he could give a glimpse of his assessment of the alliance situation in the state during private conversation, a state Congress leader said, adding that the itinerary of Rahul’s tour could be released in a day or two, if there is no change of plan at the eleventh hour.