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By:

Rajendra Pandharpure

15 April 2025 at 7:55:54 pm

Congress Shakes Off Its Lethargy

Rahul Gandhi’s student outreach is giving the Congress a boost in western Maharashtra but converting street energy into electoral momentum will be the harder task. Pune: For a party that has spent much of the past dozen years looking politically exhausted, the Congress is finally showing signs of life. It appears that Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatron Ki Goonj (“Voice of Students”) campaign, which brought him to Pune has provided Maharashtra Congress workers with a much-needed sense of political...

Congress Shakes Off Its Lethargy

Rahul Gandhi’s student outreach is giving the Congress a boost in western Maharashtra but converting street energy into electoral momentum will be the harder task. Pune: For a party that has spent much of the past dozen years looking politically exhausted, the Congress is finally showing signs of life. It appears that Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatron Ki Goonj (“Voice of Students”) campaign, which brought him to Pune has provided Maharashtra Congress workers with a much-needed sense of political purpose. The Congress’s student wing had already been demanding an inquiry into the NEET examination controversy and the resignation of the Union education minister. After the lathi-charge on students on July 20, the party shifted into a more combative mode with Gandhi attempting to turn the episode into a broader political campaign. He staged a sit-in outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence and was removed by police. He subsequently appeared at press conferences alongside students injured during the protests and recently accompanied students wounded by pellet guns while filing an FIR with the Delhi Police. Politics of Confrontation By placing students at the centre of his campaign, Gandhi is seeking to reposition himself as a political interlocutor for younger Indians. The response at the Chhatron Ki Goonj gathering in Prayagraj suggested that the message had found an audience. Pune was the next stop. The August 22 gathering brought the campaign to western Maharashtra, a region where the Congress has traditionally had a substantial political footprint but where its organisational machinery has lost much of its old vitality. The event offered Gandhi an opportunity to reconnect with students and young voters while simultaneously energising a state unit that has often appeared trapped between organisational inertia and the dominance of its allies. The significance of the Pune event therefore extends beyond the size of the crowd. For much of the Congress’s recent history, that belief has been in short supply. A high-energy campaign centred on students, examinations, jobs and institutional accountability gives the party a simpler proposition to sell. There is also a wider political calculation. Western Maharashtra remains one of the most politically competitive regions in the state, shaped by the fortunes of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party factions and the BJP. The Congress cannot afford to surrender the region to its rivals if it wants to rebuild itself in Maharashtra. Nor can it rely indefinitely on alliances to compensate for weak grassroots mobilisation. Gandhi’s intervention may thus be less about an immediate electoral breakthrough than about rebuilding political muscle. Student politics provides a useful entry point because grievances over examinations, recruitment and employment cut across caste and party affiliations. They also offer the Congress an issue on which it can attack the government without being trapped in the familiar ideological contests of Indian politics. But a crowd at a political event can only demonstrate mood; it cannot by itself produce votes. The real test for the Congress will be whether the energy generated by Chhatron Ki Goonj survives after the microphones are switched off. Can student mobilisation be converted into campus networks, local campaigns and eventually a durable cadre? Can the Maharashtra unit turn Mr Gandhi’s visibility into sustained activity in constituencies where the party has been eclipsed? Those are harder questions. The Congress’s challenge is to ensure that the goonj does not fade once the rally is over.

BMC auctioning three land parcels to raise funds, says Aaditya

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Aaditya

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday alleged Mumbai’s civic body had decided to auction three land parcels to raise funds and make up for the “loot” of the metropolis by the Eknath Shinde government.


The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is being run by an administrator now, has decided to auction the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mandi (Market), the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Malabar Hill Receiving Station and the Worli Asphalt Plant, Thackeray pointed out.


“The sale of Mumbai is being done by the Eknath Shinde regime to benefit its favourite builders and contractors,” he alleged.


A criminal investigation will be conducted into the matter after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government comes to power, Thackeray added.


“So on one end, they looted the BMC and Mumbai and gave the money to their favourite contractors. Now, by auctioning these iconic and important land parcels, the BMC will be left without both funds and plots,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former state minister claimed.


When Shiv Sena started controlling the BMC in 1997, its finances were in deficit but by 2022 his party turned around the fiscal health of the civic body, Thackeray said.


Alleging that the Shinde government wants to drive Kolis and fisherfolk out of Mumbai, he said, “We will oppose this. It has to remain and be made into a fish market, and (should be) in the ownership of the BMC.”


Aaditya puppet for urban naxals: Shelar

Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar has called Uddhav Thackeray’s son and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray as a puppet for urban naxals after former’s comments on the Dharavi Redevelopment project and has also challenged him for a debate.

Ashish Shelar said that the project is a necessity and a priority project, adding that Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Congressleader Varsha Gaikwad are peddling lies.

Aaditya Thackeray seems to have become the spokesperson of urban Naxals. Without studying the subject (Dharavi) in detail, Aaditya Thackeray is speaking like an ignorant. I have seen that these people have been trying to set a narrative regarding Dharavi and the re-development work,” Ashish Shelar said.

He challenged Aaditya Thackeray and Varsha Gaikwad in a debate on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.

“Uddhav ji and the people of his party – Aaditya Thackeray and Varsha Gaikwad have started this false narrative regarding Dharavi. I openly challenge Aaditya for a debate. I want to ask him that 70 per cent of the homes in the Dharavi Redevelopment Project will go to Marathi people, Muslims and Dalits. It is their rightful home, so why are they putting roadblocks by creating a false narrative?”

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