The coming Assembly polls in Gujarat should not be pitched as a Congress versus Prime Minister Narendra Modi battle, top party leaders opined at a meeting of the task force.
Instead of personal attacks, the party should focus on the policies of the Modi government and the failures of the State government.
Top leaders are said to have discussed the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party that could potentially dent the party's voter base in the State.
Sources said senior general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress’ poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu brainstormed about the party’s prospects in a closed-door meeting of the task force that went on for over three hours.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, on the back of the Hardik Patel-led ‘Patidar Andolan’ — the agitation to seek reservation for the powerful Patel community — the Congress had given a scare to the ruling BJP by restricting its MLAs to 99 and winning 77 seats on its own.
However, since then several MLAs defected to the BJP and Mr. Patel, who had joined the Congress, also joined the BJP in May.
