The Bid For A Return Ticket

The new president of the Grand Old Party is ­making an energetic attempt to revive its fortunes

- Bhavna Vij-Aurora

Before Rahul Gandhi left for Bahrain on January 7, his house at 12 Tughlak Lane—the Congr­ess’s new power centre—was abuzz with activity. The party’s communication department members and some office-bearers were fine-tuning the strategy for poll-bound Karnataka. The new party president was insistent that they must learn from the Gujarat experience and strengthen booth management. The larger message was clear: Karnataka must be retained at any cost and the BJP denied an entry into the south through the state.

General secretary in-charge of Karnat­aka K.C. Venugopal was sent to the state, while Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, and former Union minister Veerappa Moily were asked to stay put in their respective constituencies. Shashi Tharoor, who leads the All India Professionals’ Congress, will also head for the state on return from Bahrain, where he is accompanying Rahul. Communication department con­venor Priyanka Chaturvedi, who has set up base in Bangalore, is learning Kannada and tweeting in the local language, trying to persuade “modern, liberal and progressive” people to join her team.

“We are getting a tremendous response from the people,” she tells