The spectre of mid-term polls may have receded with the UPA deciding not to push ahead with the nuclear deal, but the exercise by the Congress to do its homework for the next Lok Sabha elections hasn?t been abandoned.
Rahul Gandhi, newly appointed Congress general secretary, spent an hour-long meeting with Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Tuesday discussing the party?s prospects and strategies in the state for forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The meeting, party circles maintained, was part of a bigger exercise currently underway in the Congress, which is being steered by the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Over the last two weeks since he was handed his new responsibility in the party, Rahul has already held one-to-one meetings with some Union ministers and is expected to continue the exercise with chief ministers of party ruled states in coming days.
Rahul is a member of the newly formed future challenges committee in the AICC, which has been tasked with the job of strategising and preparing the party for coming years. Data from state satraps on larger electoral strategy would be critical information to this committee.
Party sources asserted that in the meeting, Rahul sought to know Deshmukh?s views on how the Congress should go about in the event of Lok Sabha elections in the state. The Maharashtra chief minister was understood to have told him that a pre-poll alliance with the NCP would be to the advantage of the Congress and the UPA. Deshmukh is also of the view that the BSP will not be able to make much of an impact in Maharashtra, given that a majority of dalits in the state are Buddhists who do not really identify themselves with Mayawati?s brand of caste politics.
Given Maharashtra?s proximity to Gujarat, Assembly polls in the latter also came up for discussion in the meeting between the two leaders, sources asserted. Deshmukh has not only held charge of Gujarat as party general secretary earlier, he was also given responsibility of 39 constituencies in the state during the 2002 Assembly polls. The Congress had put up a creditable performance in 19 of these constituencies then, most of them in the Kutch region. The Maharashtra chief minister is believed to have told Rahul that the party?s prospects could improve if it was able to win over the Patel community, who form an influential votebase in the state.
Significantly, Deshmukh?s one on one meeting with Rahul is expected to help him in dispelling speculation of his being shunted out as chief minister. Over the last month, he has been making frequent trips to New Delhi, clearly with the aim of allaying talk of his losing his chair once again.