Rahul Gandhi to stay put in Saurashtra for 3 days to help revive party fortunes

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi would begin the second leg of his campaign for upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls with a three-day tour of Saurashtra from September 25.

Gandhi, who had kick-started his election campaign in the state by holding a townhall with party workers in Ahmedabad on September 4, in the second phase hold ‘Jan Samvaad’ (Dialogue with people) beginning his journey from the ancient temple town of Dwarka on Monday next.

Saurashtra is politically critical for any party seeking to rule Gujarat, with the region sending almost one-third of legislators in 182-seat Gujarat Legislative Assembly. It is Saurashtra that had propped up fortunes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2007 and 2012 Assembly polls, especially at a time when BJP witnessed a tough fight in other parts of the state. The current chief minister Vijay Rupani too hails from this region.

As per the itinerary, Rahul would begin his yatra by visiting Dwarkadheesh Krishna temple. From there he would travel to Jamanagar by road. En route, he would interact with locals, youth at various educational institutions, women and businessmen.

After a night halt at Jamangar, Congress VP would travel next day to Rajkot, again via road. Here too he would visit Khodaldham temple, the deity of Patidaar community, other than meeting locals and youth from Rajkot. On the third day of his stay in Saurashtra, he would travel from Rajkot to Surendranagar. Here too he is slated to visit Chotila and offer prayers to a local deity, before proceeding to Viramgam.

Congress has generally found it difficult to make much dent in this region primarily dominated by a saffron surge for over two decades. BJP has also been able to gradually wean away Congressmen to its fold. Congress, that had cornered dozen of the 57 seats from the region in legislative elections of 2012, found three legislators – Jasdan legislator Bhola Gohil, Jamnagar (North) legislator Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Jamangar (rural) legislator Raghavji Patel, defect to BJP and quit as legislators after cross-voting in the recently held Rajya Sabha Polls that saw Ahmed Patel scrape through.

Congress hopes that Rahul’s visit would help it revitalize the remaining cadre in the region and reach out to the electorate.

After his three-day visit to Saurashtra and Kutch, Rahul is also likely to make similar visits to North Gujarat, Central Gujarat and south Gujarat regions before elections are held in December this year.