Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will hold interactive sessions with farmers, traders and civil society members in Maharashtra on Friday. Though during his earlier visits, Rahul had met only the top leaders, this time around it is aimed at bringing the masses and party workers together, while championing the cause of farmers.
However, party insiders acknowledged that the move may not get enough traction for the party in Maharashtra, where the state government announced a farm loan waiver. Rahul is also expected to give a pep talk to the winners in the local body polls as their role would be important in the next assembly polls.
However, the bigger question is whether Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Nanded, the hometown of state Congress president Ashok Chavan, would help Chavan in protecting himself from the ire of his party men.
The Congress had dominated the Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation, which is scheduled to go to polls on October 11. However, of its 41 corporators, 14 have already crossed over to the BJP in a bid to save their political career after Chavan failed to retain the adjacent Latur Municipal Corporation earlier this year. But, this is not the only challenge for Chavan.
According to sources, another challenge for Maharashtra Congress is to bridge the growing gap with former ally NCP, which has of later been making pro-BJP noises. A case in point is that two NCP lawmakers in Gujarat did not vote for Congress nominee Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections despite clear instructions from the top.
