In Rajkot, a PTI report confirmed what workers have been fearing: that winning the 2014 election is not a priority for Rahul Gandhi. Quoting Jamnagar MP Vikram Madam, the report said Gandhi is supposed to have told workers: "We should not worry about the 2014 elections... it is not a do-or-die situation, after the 2014 general election there would be no doubt about the party's existence, as the Congress is a permanent political party."

To me that sounds a lot like: 'don't worry if we lose the election': absolutely not what Congress workers want to hear, especially in Gujarat.

Presumably others too got the same impression because shortly thereafter, Sonia Gandhi denied he had ever spoken to anyone and said what Rahul had actually said was: we will win not just the 2014 but also the 2017 (assembly) elections. Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.