The fading Congress is leaving no stone unturned to project its ‘missing’ vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the face of the party.

In an effort to revive the Grand Old Party, it initiated a question-answer session for party workers at the behest of Rahul in his parliamentary constituency, Amethi, on Saturday.

A report on the session was sent to Rahul on Sunday.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi with son and party V-P Rahul Gandhi

The report read as follows: Question: What is the ideology of the Congress? Answer: It believes in secularism. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are carrying forward this tradition effectively.

Question: Why the Congress is in a bad shape? Answer: Because the rival parties misled the voters. The Congress under the leadership of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are too good to outsmart the liars.

Question: How can we rejuvenate the Congress? Answer: It will be rejuvenated when Rahul takes over as party president.

Question: Who are the traditional voters of the Congress? Answer: Upper Caste, OBC, SC and Muslim, all are traditional voters of the Congress. Rahul doesn’t do caste politics.

Some questions were asked in writing, while others were asked to the interviewees who were shortlisted by block-level Congress committee managers selected by Rahul Gandhi.

Congress workers take part in the Vichar Vimarsh Goshthi programme in Amethi

The party is likely to hold similar question-answer sessions in Amethi in the next couple of weeks.

Later on, this exercise, named ‘Vichar Vimarsh Goshthi’ (discussion) would be started by the Congress in all the parliamentary constituencies across the country.

“We have got encouraging feedback from the partymen. They have great expectations from Sonia and Rahul. Some members were obviously excited about the possible elevation of Rahul in near future”, Yogendra Mishra, district Congress committee president, told Mail Today.

Political observers, however, believe that the way such sessions are organised, they could hardly bear a fruitful result.

“Rahul had asked his lieutenants to hold one-to-one meeting with the grassroots Congressmen of the constituency and send him the feedback. His managers were supposed to ask them why they were not happy with the Congress and what should be done to improve the relation between the general public and the party. But critical view of the Congressmen has been omitted from the report which was compiled on Sunday”, said a local Congress leader on the condition of anonymity.

Shitala Mishra, a local political observer, who had recently submitted a memorandum to Rahul to revive the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, said: “The problem is that those who are assigned to hold the meeting don’t want Rahul to know the truth. And the problem with Rahul is that he wants to know the truth from these people only.”

“There were many Congressmen who openly said that Rahul was out of touch with the masses. They also said that many union ministers from Uttar Pradesh and his managers in Amethi were working in the style of bureaucrats. They misbehave with the people and never listen to them.

"However, a majority of the Congressmen were warned in the beginning that they should only praise the Nehru-Gandhi family and refrain from making any adverse comment. They were not even allowed to remind that while Rahul had won by a margin of over 3.50 lakh votes in 2009, he must try to know why his victory margin was reduced to only 1.18 lakh votes in 2014 elections”, Mishra further said.

Reaching out

Rahul’s representative in the constituency Chandrakant Dubey, District Congress Committee President Yogendra Mishra, member of Legislative Council Dinesh Singh, Jagdishpur MLA Radhey Shyam Kannaujia, Tiloi MLA Mohammad Muslim, former state minister Jang Bahadur Singh, Congress leader Mohammad Naeem, and Congress Sewa Dal leader Narsingh Bahadur Singh were in-charge of the counters.

A group of 20 to 25 Congressmen were brought to interact with each of them.

PIL filed to find 'missing' Rahul

A Lucknow-based lawyer has moved the Allahabad High Court, seeking the whereabouts of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who has gone on leave for a couple of weeks.

Petitioner Ashok Pande has filed a PIL, requesting the Lucknow bench of the high court to ask the Special Protection Group to start looking for the ‘missing’ Congress leader.

“I have pleaded in a PIL submitted with the registry that the central government and the SPG must not sit idle and start intensive search for him. I have come to know that the SPG personnel were not accompanying him when he decided to go on leave. It is a serious matter. He is among the most protected persons in the country”, said Pande.

More calls for Priyanka to be Congress V-P

By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow

The chorus for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to play a bigger role in the Congress has grown louder again since her brother, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, went 'missing'.

A section of Congressmen in Uttar Pradesh appear hell-bent on bringing Priyanka to the helm of the party at any cost.

Some local Congressmen have put up posters in Allahabad demanding that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra be made the party’s vice-president in Rahul’s absence

In its latest move, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee on Sunday suspended Shamimul Haque, former chairman of Kanpur Mahanagar Minority Cell, for putting up a banner in the city that read: “Rahul Bhaiyya stifa do, kisi dusre ko mauka do.”

The banner also read: “Mammiji (Sonia) is helpless; Congress is losing every election and Rahul has gone on leave. Priyanka will not be made the torch-bearer. So the leadership should be handed over to an outsider. Sriprakash (Jaiswal) should sail the ship or the Congressmen should be ready to resign.”

However, Jaiswal has distanced himself from the banner and said it was the work of a “thoughtless fellow”.

Meanwhile, Haque said: “We are failing in every election fought under the leadership of Rahul, our national vice-president. He is on leave when he is needed in Parliament to reply to the jibes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We could see a spark in Priyanka and wanted her to take over the party and revive it. But our demand was turned down.”

He is not the only poster-warrior in the Congress. Three days ago, two local Congressmen — Haseeb Ahmad and Shrish Dubey from Allahabad — had raised posters and banners in which they had demanded to make Priyanka vice-president of the party in absence of Rahul. The UPCC has shown them the door.

But these leaders have not received any suspension letter. Instead, they have written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi urging her to let Priyanka be head of the party if she is serious about revival.