By IANS,
Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu) : Signalling that the Congress is going to be a tough negotiator for seats in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, party president Sonia Gandhi Saturday urged the cadres to strengthen its base and make it the “party of the future”.
“We are in alliance in Tamil Nadu. We respect the alliance. What is important is to restore our distinctive identity in Tamil Nadu. We have to become the party of the future. The party should not lose its individuality,” Gandhi said at a public rally here, some 320 km from Chennai.
The Congress is in alliance with the ruling DMK at the Centre and in the state. The assembly elections are due next year.
The rally was held to celebrate the party’s 125th anniversary, the fourth time election of Gandhi as its president and the joining of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader S. Thirunavukkarasu with his followers in the party.
“This meeting is a new chapter for the Congress party in Tamil Nadu. I urge you all to work together for a new beginning for the Congress in Tamil Nadu. A new chapter to be written in Tamil Nadu for the party,” she thundered.
Referring to the successful membership enrolment drive by the party’s youth wing in the state, she said: “The recent efforts of Youth Congress have brought in huge number of youth to the party in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.”
She said the young men and women will strengthen the Congress and they should be given adequate representation in the party.
The Congress chief also urged the party cadres to reach out to the rural people and highlight the benefits of various centrally-assisted schemes implemented by the state government like the noon meal scheme, rural employment guarantee scheme, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and Indira Awaas Yojana (housing scheme).
She said the Congress-led central government has fulfilled in the last nearly six and half years most of the promises made in its election manifesto.
“We have strengthened the nation’s economy and provided employment. We have also implemented several poverty alleviation programmes,” said Gandhi, who was welcomed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at the Chennai airport earlier in the day.
Recalling the economic reform measures done by her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Gandhi said: “It was Rajiv who launched the IT (information technology) and telecom revolution and its major benefits were reaped by Tamil Nadu.”
Recalling the loss of party leaders like late former prime minister Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, she said: “We have lost our beloved leaders but not our party’s ideology and we are holding on to them tightly.”