Rahul Gandhi's Bihar campaign to start with wooing Muslims

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi will start his Bihar campaign from Katihar, Araria and Supaul, in a move symbolising the Congress hope to wean away Muslim votes in state elections.

The Congress heir-apparent will address rallies in the three places on Thursday, pockets which are part of the minority belt. The choice may not be coincidental as they come in the wake of Allahabad High Court's judgment on Ayodhya and a row sparked by Rahul's statement in Bhopal equating RSS with the proscribed SIMI.

There is anticipation in the party that the AICC general secretary may touch upon the sensitive issues as there is a virtual three-way race for minority votes. While Lalu Prasad's RJD has remained a strong pole for the community, ruling JD(U) is harbouring hopes that it can win a chunk despite being in partnership with BJP on account of Nitish Kumar's governance. Congress is hoping to encash the appeal of its virtual one-party rule in Delhi.

Congress hopes are built around the possibility of Muslims voting for it and upper castes or individual groups polarising around its candidates to give it a winning combination. The party has fielded a record 47 Muslim candidates.

Rahul seems to be following the script. The statement in Bhopal equating RSS with SIMI was not innocuous as observers saw it aimed at flagging Congress as different from BJP after the Ayodhya verdict.

The BJP bid to use the judgment to justify its Ayodhya campaign and Babri demolition threatened Congress among the minorities as, unlike Left and SP, AICC cannot speak out against the HC ruling and feared being seen as closer to BJP.

The offensive against RSS, which expectedly triggered a strong response from the saffron family, has served the political purpose for Congress.

While AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh has always said that fanaticoutfits on both sides of the divide stood at par, Rahul's statement seems to have given fresh fodder for Congress to target minorities in UP, its next big objective.

Rahul is not new to the formulation though. Insiders recall the documentary `Bapu hum sharminda hain' (Bapu, we are ashamed) which had accused RSS of masterminding the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The film, made for Doordarshan by a group associated with Rahul, recorded statements from known Gandhians to lay the blame for the murder on RSS of which Nathuram Godse was a member.