In battle of ideologies, only Cong can trump RSS-BJP: Rahul; kicks off party revamp

Modasa: Admitting Congress cadres seem “demoralised” in Gujarat, where the party is out of power for long, Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said only his outfit can defeat RSS-BJP as he sought to position the fight against the saffron rivals as an ideological duel.

On his second visit to Gujarat in a week, the Congress MP laid out the road map to revamp the organisation in the state and promised to remove party leaders who are either inactive or “work for the BJP”.

He described Gujarat, where the Congress was once a powerful political force, as the most important state for the Opposition party and expressed his resolve to finish the task of defeating the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power here for nearly 30 years.

Gandhi was addressing booth-level Congress workers at Modasa town in Arvalli district after launching a pilot project of strengthening district units as part of the grand old party’s push to revamp the organisation in Gujarat, where Assembly polls are due in late 2027.

A five-member committee, comprising one AICC observer and four state observers, will oversee the process of appointing new chiefs for each of the 41 district units (including eight cities) of the party in Gujarat, starting from Aravalli district.

In his address, Gandhi made several promises to workers such as devolving more power and funding to district units, assessing performance of senior figures, promoting ground-level active functionaries and removing those leaders who are either inactive or “working for the BJP”.

“This is a battle of ideologies. There are only two parties which have ideologies - one is the BJP and other is the Congress. And, only the Congress can defeat the BJP and the RSS. Gujarat is the most important state for the party because the path to BJP’s defeat goes through Gujarat.