Sonia, Rahul to boost morale: Bhuniya

Kolkata, 5 Sept: With ally Trinamool Congress occupying the major opposition space in Left-ruled West Bengal after its spectacular electoral victories, the Congress is banking on upcoming visits of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to boost the morale of party men ahead of the Assembly elections.

While AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will address a rally to launch the membership drive of the Youth Congress here tomorrow, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will be here on 25 September to attend the AICC's eastern zonal conference.

"We expect that the visits of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will help boost workers' morale ahead of the crucial Assembly elections scheduled next year," West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) chief Manas Bhuniya said.

He claimed that the proposed visits of the two leaders have made young Congress supporters upbeat.

Bhuniya would request Rahul to visit the WBPCC office here tomorrow and meet state leaders, Seva Dal and Youth Congress activists.

The young Congress leader would again be in Kolkata during the second or third week of this month for three days to undertake a state-wide tour, Bhuniya said.

In the past few weeks, at least 42 MLAs from across India have been deputed by Rahul Gandhi to prepare a political status report on the Congress and the Youth Congress at the ground level in West Bengal, and create a climate for a vigorous membership drive, he said.

In the past few weeks, eleven zonal coordinators have been criss-crossing each block of the state to create awareness about the membership drive, Bhuniya said.

The zonal co-ordinators include union ministers Jitin Prasada and Sachin Pilot, and party MP Mohammad Azharuddin.

"The exercise was aimed at creating a streamlined, elected, talented and youthful leadership from the grassroots to the top with a clear chain of command," party leaders in the state said.

"The target is to enrol 10 to 15 lakh youths as members of the state Youth Congress," they said.

In reply to a question, Bhuniya said: "It is not correct to say that the Congress in the state is moribund. In the 2006 Assembly elections, Congress won 21 Assembly seats as against the Trinamool Congress's 29."

Stating that only a third of Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats were left for the Congress to contest in 2009 after the seat-sharing deal with the Trinamool Congress, he said, "The Congress sacrificed a lot and did not get a seat within 200 km of Kolkata during the Lok Sabha polls.

"We, however, accepted it as the people of Bengal wanted us to to fight together to free the state from the clutches of Marxist misrule," he said.

The results of the election to 81 municipalities across the state on 30 May saw Trinamool Congress making inroads into Congress territory in north Bengal and Murshidabad without alliance after having consolidating its base in the south.


(PTI)