By IANS
Lucknow : Nehru Bhawan was all decked up Monday as MP and the party’s national general secretary Rahul Gandhi arrived here on his maiden visit to the headquarters of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC).
The son of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has been to Lucknow dozens of times since he became an MP from the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency that was once represented by his late father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
But he had never spent time in this capital of the country’s most populous state where his party ruled for four decades till 1989, except for a brief road show before of the assembly elections this May.
Monday’s visit was Rahul’s first major political foray in the state outside Amethi.
Though he was not scheduled to address a public rally, he addressed a meeting of the party’s coordination committee, the second one to be held over a decade.
The newly appointed state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi took pains to give the century-old party office building a new and festive look.
Rahul’s mission was clear — to revive the party in this politically crucial state, where its graph has only plummeted for the past 18 years.
Joshi and newly appointed state in-charge Digvijay Singh have turned to Rahul to reinvigorate the party torn by internal strife, Congress sources here said.