Cong to meet in Gujarat to mull defeat

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi

May 26: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday convened a two-day Chintan Shivir at Dwaraka in Gujarat on June 7 and June 8. All senior leaders from Gujarat, including Union ministers, MPs and MLAs, would take part in the two-day camp, which is expected to come up with a strategy for revival of the Congress in the land of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mrs Gandhi is set out to walk in the footsteps of Indira Gandhi to revive the party in Gujarat.

The Congress had pitched for an ideological battle for the mind of Gandhi versus Godse.

Mrs Gandhi is keen on ideological clarity in the Congress, especially on core issues like secularism, on which there appears to be some confusion among partymen. Gujarat Assembly elections was a classic case, where the Congress was afraid to refer to the communal carnage of 2002 and the plight of the victims, still languishing in the camps ever since, for fear of communal polarisation that may favour the BJP.

The Congress in the past had been fiercely raising the issue of secularism, but the trend now has been to go soft on the issue, raising the spectre of a perceived advantage for the BJP.

Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and AICC general secretary incharge of Gujarat B.K. Hariprasad would participate in the camp.

The party has plans to start a Hisab Mango Abhiyan (Call for Accountability Campaign) against the BJP government in Gujarat led by chief minister Narendra Modi. The Congress is keen to make the party fighting-fit in Gujarat for the next parliamentary elections in early 2009. Plans are afoot to hold rallies at several places.