Less US & UK, more Bihar & Gujarat, Rahul 2.0 is on a grassroots sprint with a packed schedule
For much of his political life, Rahul has battled the perception of being a reluctant or a 'non-serious politician'. The label, coined by his political opponents, was echoed by some within his own Congress party, frustrated by his lack of a consistent approach.
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was in Kerala Friday. The day before, he travelled to Assam. On Wednesday, he spent a few hours in Lucknow. Earlier in the week, Rahul met with Congress leaders from Jharkhand and Bihar in New Delhi. Last week, he was in Patna and Bhubaneswar, following a meeting with the Gujarat unit in the capital.
At a public meeting in April last year at Jawahar Bhavan in New Delhi, Rahul, for the first time, addressed the criticism directly. 'They say I'm not serious, I'm not interested in politics. Land Acquisition Bill, MNREGA, Niyamgiri, Bhatta Parsaul are not serious? When people talk about the larger population, they deem us non-serious. When you don't have the loudspeaker in hand, everything that you say is non-serious,' he told the audience.
VIDEO | Here's what Rahul Gandhi said addressing Samajik Nyay Sammelan in Delhi.
"They say I'm not serious, I'm not interested in politics. Land Acquisition Bill, MNREGA, Niyamgiri, Bhatta Parsaul are not serious. When people talk about the larger population they deem us… pic.twitter.com/z2l5ZsTsov
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 24, 2024
This was essentially an attempt to frame his early years in politics through an ideological lens, projecting him as an outsider within the establishment.
But the criticism he faced over the years was less about a lack of ideological commitment, and more about the perception that he was unavailable or unresponsive to his own party workers.
Rahul's repeated retreats from the public eye, his foreign visits, and his appearances mainly during elections, following the Congress's defeat in the 2014 elections only reinforced that image.
The 4,000-km Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 2022–23 marked a clear departure from that pattern, helping recast him as a more serious political figure. He followed it up with the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Maharashtra in early 2024.
Yet, not everyone was convinced of his ability to revive the Congress's moribund organisational machinery, especially in the states, in the absence of an effort to connect with the provincial leaderships.
'Be it Bharat Jodo Yatra or Bhatta Parsaul, those campaigns helped Rahul Gandhi project himself as a committed, ideological political leader whose heart beats for the people. But he was still seen as someone uninterested in organisational affairs, inaccessible to leaders outside. That has somewhat changed now,' a Congress Lok Sabha MP told ThePrint.
A look at Rahul's engagements from the beginning of this year reveals a gradual uptick in his visible involvement in the Congress's organisational affairs.
When asked about the noticeable change in Rahul's approach, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C.Venugopal told ThePrint that the party leadership's visits to the states are now being planned differently than in the past.
'Earlier, we used to go to a state, address a public rally and return. That approach has now changed. Now wherever Rahul Gandhi goes, we arrange his meetings with senior leaders of the state, MPs, MLAs. Then there's one public programme before returning to Delhi. The same model is followed for Congress President Kharge too. We have been to nine to 10 states and the rest will also be covered,' Venugopal said.
For Rahul, while January was largely devoted to campaigning for the Delhi polls, he visited Bihar in February, his first of six visits to the poll-bound state so far this year.
In February, he also spent two days in his Lok Sabha constituency Rae Bareli, attending seven public events. In March, he landed in Ahmedabad for a two-day visit that he began by holding a meeting with the Political Affairs Committee of the Gujarat Congress unit, a practice that he's since followed in nearly every state.
LIVE: Addressing Congress Workers | Ahmedabad, Gujarat https://t.co/H5Laio3EVy
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 8, 2025
It is in Gujarat that the Congress rolled out its ambitious plan to restructure its district units, in an effort to place them at the centre of the party's larger efforts to reclaim lost political ground.
Venugopal said '70 per cent of the party's problems will be solved' if the project to revamp the district units, launched in a year that the Congress has announced will of organisational strengthening, becomes a success.
He said previously district presidents were appointed by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) by going through lists of names recommended by the state in-charges and presidents.
'Now, names are being shortlisted by AICC and PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) observers after holding consultations with at least 5,000 to 6,000 people in every district. Of course, the final call will be that of the AICC. New Gujarat district presidents have been announced. Likewise, lists will be out for Madhya Pradesh and Haryana within this month,' Venugopal said.
Venugopal said one objective behind Rahul's meetings with state leaderships is also to gather feedback about the ongoing restructuring of the organisation.
In April, the Gandhi scion visited Bihar, Gujarat for the second time, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. On 7 April, apart from participating in public events including a 'Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan', Rahul also met senior leaders and district presidents of the party's unit in Bihar.
In Gujarat, again on a two-day visit, he formally launched the project to revamp the district units and addressed an orientation programme for the observers appointed for this purpose.
पहलगाम में हुए कायरतापूर्ण आतंकी हमले में शहीद हुए शुभम द्विवेदी के परिजनों से आज मुलाक़ात कर उन्हें सांत्वना दी।
इस दुःखद घड़ी में पूरा देश शोकाकुल परिवारों के साथ खड़ा है। आतंकियों के ख़िलाफ़ सख्त और ठोस कार्रवाई होनी चाहिए और पीड़ित परिवारों को न्याय मिलना चाहिए।
इसी… pic.twitter.com/MaOj4H2J4w
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 30, 2025
Later that month, he travelled to Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to meet those injured in the Pahalgam terror attack.
On 26 April, he took part in the Bharat Summit organised by the Congress government in Telangana. Three days later, he landed in Rae Bareli again and attended a series of public outreach events, while also holding a meeting with the party's booth-level workers.
On 15 May, he returned to Patna, this time to participate in a protest and to watch the movie 'Phule' with influencers from the marginalised communities—activities that were aligned with his social justice pitch. Five days later, he was in Karnataka to address a public rally in Vijayanagar district.
आज पुंछ में पाकिस्तान की गोलाबारी में जान गंवाने वाले लोगों के परिवारों से मिला।
टूटे मकान, बिखरा सामान, नम आंखें और हर कोने में अपनों को खोने की दर्द भरी दास्तान – ये देशभक्त परिवार हर बार जंग का सबसे बड़ा बोझ साहस और गरिमा के साथ उठाते हैं। उनके हौसले को सलाम है।
पीड़ित… pic.twitter.com/CIDEXmqXxG
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 24, 2025
On 24 May, the LoP visited areas in J&K's Poonch affected by Pakistani shelling during Operation Sindoor.
Following his return to Delhi, he visited Delhi University and met the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) unit. On 30 May, he met the Congress's new leadership in Assam in Delhi, two days after the appointment of the party's Lok Sabha Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi as the president of the state unit.
June onwards, Rahul's involvement in organisational affairs attained a frenetic pace. On 3 and 4 June, he was in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana respectively, meeting party MPs, MLAs, Political Affairs Committees, district and block presidents among others.
In fact, his visit to the Congress's Haryana unit office in Chandigarh was the first by a member of the Gandhi family. On 6 June, he participated in party events in Bihar's Gaya and Rajgir. He also wrote an opinion piece in various newspapers, a route he rarely took before, on 6 June, triggering a heated debate on the independence, or the lack of it, of the Election Commission.
The Congress leader also marked his 55th birthday on 19 June by visiting the party's national headquarters and personally accepting greetings from leaders and workers. In the past, he had drawn criticism for being abroad on his birthdays, denying party members, who often cut cakes in his absence, the opportunity to meet him.
On 21 June, the Congress announced the new district presidents of the party in Gujarat, marking the culmination of its pilot project which has now been scaled up.
Venugopal said the performance of the new appointees will be assessed in three to four months and those found unable to deliver will be made to step down.
'There will be a clear-cut evaluation not just for the new district presidents but office-bearers at all levels. The AICC will carry out the assessment process. They will have to fulfil the primary task for which they are being appointed. Anyone who wants to contest elections will have to step down at least one year before they plan to do so. They will be given ideological training and made aware of the prevailing political situation,' he said.
Leaders of the Congress's tribal wing also shared a similar feedback they received from Rahul in two meetings he held with them over the last one month.
On 23 June, he met leaders of the All India Adivasi Congress, the party's tribal wing. He held another meeting 14 July, also sharing his vision to establish an empowered tribal leadership within the party.
This month, Rahul has already been to Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kerala. Separately, in Delhi, he has held meetings with leaderships of the Jharkhand, Bihar and Gujarat units.
LoP Shri @RahulGandhi made a courtesy visit to senior leader Shri A.K. Antony in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. pic.twitter.com/6J6npGVBdw
— Congress (@INCIndia) July 18, 2025
'There is also an effort on his part to act as a bridge between the party's old and new guard that has come up under him,' said a senior Congress functionary who works closely with Rahul, referring to his meeting with former defence minister A.K.Antony in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
Many leaders, however, are cautiously optimistic about the shift in this approach and its implications for the party.
'He is going around sharing his vision and ideas with party workers down to the block level. But execution remains an area of concern. Last year, he had declared his intention to purge the Gujarat unit of BJP moles. The same set of people actually dictated the appointment process of the district presidents of Gujarat Congress in some cases,' said a leader of the party's Gujarat unit.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: 50 yrs since Emergency, Congress's journey from justification to admission of 'mistake'
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