Anand, 26 July

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday assured the district unit chiefs of his party in Gujarat that their opinions will be taken into account while selecting poll candidates.

Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, during his address at the Congress' district presidents' training camp under the 'Sangathan Sujan Abhiyan' (campaign to strengthen the party organisation), also slammed the Election Commission for being "biased" and asserted it was important to defeat the BJP in its "main base" of Gujarat.

The party has organised the camp for the newly-appointed presidents of District Congress Committees at a resort near Anand city in view of the 2027 state assembly elections. The camp, aimed to prepare a road map for the party's Mission 2027, will conclude on 28 July.

Rahul Gandhi guided the district presidents and assured that the leadership is fully with the party workers, Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda told reporters after the meeting.

"Rahul Gandhi asked us to take up issues concerning people. He assured that city and district unit chiefs will be consulted before candidates for various elections are chosen," Rajkot Congress chief Rajdeepsinh Jadeja said.

Another leader said Gandhi used cricketing terms to accuse the Election Commission of India of being a "biased umpire", because of which the Congress has been losing elections.

"In cricket, if you get out time and again, you can start doubting yourself. But then you realise you are getting out not because of your fault. It is the umpire who is biased. Rahul ji said this and gave us confidence. He asserted we lost the 2017 Gujarat polls due to the ECI's dubious voters' list," the Congress' Surendranagar district chief Naushad Solanki said.

"Rahul ji emphasised it was very important to defeat the BJP in its main base of Gujarat. He told us the party used to believe that we must work hard (to defeat the BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and some other states. He said if we can defeat the BJP in Gujarat, then the party can be defeated everywhere," Solanki added.

In another example, the LoP in Lok Sabha likened the nation to a temple where everybody can come and pray, but the BJP-RSS is controlling who gets what as "prasad", Solanki said.

"They (BJP-RSS) decide what is to be given if a SC, ST or OBC comes and if Adani or Ambani comes," Solanki said quoting Gandhi.

Later at around 3 pm, Gandhi will hold a discussion with cooperative sector leaders and dairy farmers who are members of various cooperative milk unions or dairies.

This meeting is being held in the backdrop of recent protest organised by the dairy farmers outside Sabar Dairy in Himmatnagar town of north Gujarat over the issue of milk procurement prices.

In a bid to strengthen the party's organisation at district levels ahead of 2027 state assembly elections, the Congress party had recently appointed new presidents of all the District Congress Committees.