Rahul will not only launch a campaign for Karnataka, but also do a soft launch of the party's Mission 2019

Rahul is not just brainstorming the strategy with senior leaders but even instructing state unit heads.

Buoyed by the close finish with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bastion Gujarat, Congress president Rahul Gandhi in now eyeing a better performance in the general elections and poll-bound Karnataka under Mission 2019.

Rahul and other party stalwarts have zeroed in on few key areas-preparing lists of probable Lok Sabha candidates, focus on urban voters, setting up of block- and booth-level structures, communication department teams and focus on local issues which can be used later on during campaigns.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki told India Today, "We met Rahul Gandhi in connection with the 2019 elections. Our priority is now to prepare list candidates who can be fielded in the elections."

"We have already started working on booth management. Rahul Gandhi also asked us to make the electorate aware of what the state government is doing for its betterment and the party's future plans," he said.

State unit leaders have also been asked to work upon increasing the vote share. Senior Congress leader and former MLA from Gujarat Siddharth Patel, who also met Rahul, said, "Our Navsarjan Yatra campaign in Gujarat was a huge hit, but we are not satisfied with the increase of votes."

AICC Communication Department convener Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "After receiving Rahul Gandhi's instructions, we have started strengthening our departments across the country. We are roping in youngsters for our communication teams and focussing on local issue-based campaigns which can be later used at the national level."

DPCC president Ajay Maken told India Today, "We have already set up committees based on professions of urban voters. Our local units are reaching out to them as part of organisation-strengthening process."

As part of the strategy to reach out to voters, Rahul will hold a 'Janata Durbar' at the Congress headquarters in Delhi every Saturday.

Manmohan Singh Praises Rahul Gandhi For Hard Work Before Assembly Polls In Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat

Dr Manmohan Singh added that he was not a prophet to foresee whether the people's anger against the BJP-led Central government's decision to implement GST and demonetisation would be reflected in the election.

KOCHI:  Former prime minister Manmohan Singh today praised Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for his "hard work" in the run-up to the elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat and expressed his hope that the party would emerge victorious.

Politics, he added, was an "unpredictable profession" and one could only try.

Dr Singh was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on "Macro Economic Developments in India: Policy Perspectives" at St Teresa's College in Ernakulam.

Responding to a question on the Congress' chances of winning in Himachal Pradesh and BJP-ruled Gujarat, he said, "I think our vice president Rahul Gandhi is doing very hard work and I hope his efforts will be crowned with success. But politics is an unpredictable profession. One doesn't know, one keeps trying."

Dr Singh added that he was not a prophet to foresee whether the people's anger against the BJP-led Central government's decision to implement GST and demonetisation would be reflected in the election.

"Well I can only hope. I am not a prophet," the former Prime Minister said.

News Source : NDTV

CWC meet on Monday, decks set to be cleared for Rahul's elevation as next Congress chief

New Delhi: The Congress working committee meeting on Monday is likely to approve the schedule for the party president's election, as per media reports.

Party sources said the CWC will meet at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence at 10:30 am on November 20.

The CWC will approve the schedule for the Congress president's election, they said. Rahul Gandhi is expected to be the only candidate in the fray, the sources said, PTI reported.

On the last day of filing the nomination, if no other contestant files his/her nomination against Gandhi, then he will be declared president unopposed.

The party has time until December 31 to complete the entire organisational election process and submit the report to the Election Commission.

The Congress had earlier set a deadline to complete the organisational elections by October-end. 

"The schedule for the elections will be approved and according to that, the process will start. The date for which will be announced on Monday," Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi told ANI.

"The Congress working committee approves the schedule for the Congress president elections separately," he added.

On asking what date will Rahul be "crowned" as the party president, Dwivedi asserted that using this word would be "wrong" at the moment.

"The date for Congress president elections will be announced, when the nominations will be filed, when the scrutiny will happen and when the date for taking back the names will happen," he said.