Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will spend September 7 travelling across Maharashtra to connect with the youth on a wide range of subjects.
A senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary told DNA, “Rahul will visit Akola, Aurangabad and Pune and hold interactions with students. He does not believe in conventional politics, which is restricted to interactions with party officials alone. He believes in addressing students’ forums where an uninhibited exchange of ideas between the people and the party can take place.”
One Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) leader recalled, “One of the main attractions of Rahul’s last visit to Mumbai was an interaction he held with students at the Bhaidas auditorium in Vile Parle.”
Gandhi visited the city earlier this year amid Shiv Sena protests and promised to return to the state soon. His visit comes ahead of the party’s decision to hold a national Congress conclave in Mumbai. Chief minister Ashok Chavan and MPCC president Manikrao Thakre last month met party chief Sonia Gandhi with a proposal to hold a conclave in Mumbai.
The AICC formally gave its consent, stating, “After organisational elections for state Congress presidents, the conclave to commemorate 125-year celebrations of the party will take place in Mumbai. But the final dates are being worked out.”
Political managers in the Congress said, “Rahul’s stress is to consolidate the party’s organisational network not only in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the party is not in power, but also in states like Maharashtra where it is a ruling party.”
According to Congress sources, Rahul, at 40, is in no hurry to climb up the political ladder to hold the topmost post in the party. He wants to connect with the country’s youth and draw them towards the Congress.
