The Congress leadership in West Bengal believes that the visit of Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary here on Monday will provide it the much-needed shot in the arm at a time when its alliance partner, the Trinamool Congress, has usurped much of the Opposition's political space.
Mr. Gandhi, who will be addressing a rally here to launch a membership drive of the Youth Congress, is expected to give the call for revitalising the Congress that has been overshadowed here by the Trinamool Congress in their joint campaign to dislodge the Left Front government in the Assembly polls due next year.
Even as the Congress in the State is trying to reassert itself, its leadership has admitted that its workers had, in several places, been deserting the party. There were sections among the disillusioned which regretted the absence of programmes and listlessness in Congress activities.
But things are turning around now and many among those who had left the party were returning, AICC general secretary in charge of the party's affairs in the State, K. Keshava Rao had contended only recently.
It is against such a backdrop that Mr. Gandhi is visiting. He is expected to meet senior State Congress leaders.
“We shall provide him with our general assessment of the situation in the State,” Manas Bhunia, president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee said here on Sunday.
Not to be outdone by the Trinamool Congress in vitriolic attacks against the Left Front government, Dr. Bhunia claimed that the CPI(M) is running training camps in Paschim Medinipur district. This has been a refrain of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
He also alleged that the number of arms in the hands of “goons” across the State “is nearly five times the number with the police.”
“The State government is not seizing these arms as most of them were in the hands of the cadres of the CPI(M), Dr. Bhunia said, adding that such matters would be brought to the notice of Mr. Gandhi.
