‘You are our backbone, DNA; we love you’: Rahul Gandhi to Congress karyakartas ahead of elections

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a message to the party karyakartas ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, called them the backbone of the party and its DNA. He lauded them for fighting the ideology of the RSS on the streets, villages and elsewhere too. Gandhi told them that the Congress party relies on them.

"You are the Congress worker, our backbone and the DNA of our party. The BJP-RSS are against the idea of India. They are attacking our Constitution, the country's democratic structure, our institutions, including the ECI, as well as the legal framework of India. You fight against the ideology of the RSS on the streets, in the villages, and everywhere. You are the defenders! You helped us bring key ideas from the people of India into our Manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. We rely on you, and we love you! I send you my best wishes. We're going to defeat the BJP & their ideology!,” said Congress in a post on social media, along with a video.

In the video, Gandhi can be seen telling the karyakartas that they have brought out a “fantastic manifesto”. “We have got very powerful guarantees for sections of our society, Rs 1 lakh for every poor family directly in the bank account of one of the women, Rs 8,500 every month, right to apprenticeship law that will guarantee apprenticeship to all our graduates, one year of apprenticeship, powerful training in either the best Indian companies or the public sector and government offices, MSP to farmers, a farm loan waiver, minimum wage of Rs 400, guarantee the doubling of wages of ASHA and Aanganwadi workers,” said Gandhi, crediting the karyakartas for bringing these ideas to the party for the manifesto.

Gandhi’s message to the karyakartas came ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, scheduled to start on April 19. Campaigning for the first phase ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and union territories.

Polling will be held in all the seats of Tamil Nadu (39), along with 5 each in Uttarakhand, Assam and Maharashtra, 2 each in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, one each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Lakshadweep, 12 in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, 4 in Bihar, and 3 in West Bengal.

In 2019, the UPA had won 45 of these 102 seats and the NDA 41. Six of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise.