As Rahul Gandhi is all set to officially take charge as the party's 87th president on Saturday, party workers and supporters are in a celebratory mood. Right from distributing sweets, bursting firecrackers to dancing, Congress cadres' upbeat mood ahead of Rahul's "coronation" is very much visible in front of the party's headquarters in Delhi.
Even though there is apprehension about the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections to be declared on Monday, it did not dent the party workers' energy to celebrate its "new era" with a new president.
In front of the Congress' headquarters in the national capital, posters of Rahul speak about the workers' happiness to get their new boss. Right in front of a massive poster of Rahul, who was the party's vice-president for more than four years since 2013, the party workers have kept several plates of ladoos (sweets) as some kind of 'offering'.
What is more striking are the words on the poster--"Energy of India"--through which the party wants to convey the message that Rahul is going to reach out across the country with his new-found energy and zeal which was very much apparent during the 47-year-old's campaigning in the Gujarat Assembly elections which got over on Thursday.
Since last night, party workers have been shouting slogans in praise of Rahul and bursting crackers to tell the world that it has found a new leader to revive the fortunes of the party which has been experiencing turbulent times since the Lok Sabha elections of 2014.
Rahul's main challenge remains the revamping of party organisation, apart from electoral battles in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, current and former chief ministers, MPs, senior Congress leaders, and all the Pradesh Congress Committee (PPC) chiefs and delegates will be present at the handing over ceremony of Rahul.
Rahul's promotion has come at a crucial time, just two days before the Gujarat Assembly elections results and more than a year before the all-important parliamentary elections in 2019. So, the first test of Rahul will be how much his campaigning during the Gujarat elections helped the party? Now, it needs to be seen how good Rahul would prove himself as the boss of the grand old party.
Comments
Post a Comment