New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's efforts at bringing to the fore the great Gandhi contribution to Uttar Pradesh did not pay off too much during the Assembly elections in the state earlier this year.
However, the young Gandhi scion is not deterred and is now training guns on the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat.
The newly-appointed General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee is scripting new ideas to revive the Congress and his leadership claims in Gujarat.
According to a report in the Mumbai-based DNA newspaper, the first of these grand plans is speaking fluent Gujarati while on the campaign trail, so as to address the voters in their own language.
Narendra Modi calls himself the representative of all things Gujarati, and has used Sonia Gandhi's Italian origins to make slurs on the Gandhi family — "Sonia Gandhi is a Jersey cow. Even shopkeepers are not ready to employ her as a clerk. Rahul Gandhi is a hybrid calf, and I will not even employ him as my driver," Modi had said during the UP elections.
Rahul's crash course in Gujarati-speaking will not just help woo voters, but will also be an apt answer to all the times Modi has raised the 'Italian' arguement.
It is believed that One of Sonia Gandhi's closest advisors, Ahmed Patel, is believed to be the brain behind the move to project Rahul Gandhi as the Congress' star campaigner.
The party is also planning a strategy to project young Gandhi as one with family roots in the land of Sardar Patel. Rahul's grandfather Feroze Gandhi hailed from the state and spoke fluent Gujarati.
Experts feel that if Rahul manages to strike an emotional rapport with the local populace, Congress may be able to sway the popular political sentiment its way.
Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Prakash Jaiswal on a visit to Gujarat stated, "Rahul Gandhi will play a decisive role in the upcoming Gujarat polls. He has jumped into the battlefield. No other party has such a popular youth leader."
"No other party has such a popular youth leader. His entry will result in mobilising youth. This youth power will bring about change," Jaiswal added.
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