Congress leader KC Venugopal explains why Rahul Gandhi won't attend winter session of Parliament

Pic Credit: File Photo

NEW DELHI: Congress MP KC Venugopal on Sunday stated why Rahul Gandhi is not going to attend the winter session of Parliament. He said that Rahul is currently on the Bharat Jodo Yatra and it won’t be “practical” for him to attend the winter session of Parliament. “Today in the meeting of the Congress Steering Committee, we discussed two things. First is the plenary session of our party which we have decided to hold in the second half of February. It will be a 3-day session which will be held in Raipur, Chattisgarh,” he said. The Bharat Jodo Yatra in Assam did not manage to get as much support as it expected from Congress workers.

The Assam version of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' of the Congress has completed one month. It started from Dhubri district and is set to cover a distance of 834 km from Dhubri to Sadiya before it ends in mid-December.

The state leaders launched the yatra from Golakganj town in Dhubri district near the India-Bangladesh border on November 1. It was always a question whether the Congress, which is already a diminishing force in Assam, can connect the people and party workers with this campaign.

Before the launch, the grassroot party workers did not look enthused about the yatra. There was confusion among the cadres about it and the state unit failed to galvanize them.

Though the Congress yatra has drawn significant crowds in some places so far, the party might not get the support it requires to put up a strong fight against the BJP in the next elections. The biggest worry for the party is that many of its workers have stayed away from the campaign.

Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah also accepted this fact. He said: "We have noticed that many party workers have skipped the yatra in Assam. At least 30 percent of the office bearers are absent from the Bharat Jodo Yatra."