Rahul Gandhi agrees that the Congress in Gujarat is sick and needs a dose, but feels that for now, surgery is avoidable if medicine can help.

At the party's state executive in Rajkot on Friday, Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said, "For the party, the need of the hour is a big surgery. We need action. Get disciplined or lose power."

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To which Rahul said, If medicine can work this time, then let's not do the surgery. But a dose is required.

At daylong interactions with party representatives from the districts, Rahul encouraged lower-level leaders to speak their minds. He said that the executive should meet every month instead of every six months currently.

Various functionaries including district and city presidents should not be allowed to be on the same post for more than two terms, Rahul said.There should be decentralisation of power, even taluka and booth level leaders should have some rights so that they can see a career and future.

To top leaders, he warned, anybody, irrespective of the post he holds, if he does not work, will lose the post.

A PTI report quoted Jamnagar MP Vikram Madam as saying Rahul had told workers, "We should not worry about the 2014 elections... it is not a do-or-die situation, and after the 2014 general election there would be no doubt about the party's existence, as the Congress is a permanent political party."

However, when contacted by The Indian Express, Madam denied the statement. "I have not said any such thing to anybody. In fact, Rahul asserted that we will win the 2014 and 2017 (state) elections."

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