In a passionate plea to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Kerala and top party leader Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday wrote to the former that he is the only alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authoritarian regime.

“The only opposition and the only alternative to Modi’s authoritarian regime is Rahul Gandhi. In these times, where even some of the mainstream media houses have become partisan and pro power, your good self has been successful in waging a lonely battle against the Modi-Amit Shah duo,” said Chennithala in his letter to Gandhi.

“The grassroots level workers are eagerly waiting for Rahulji to take over the reins of the party. This will infuse unmatched enthusiasm among our cadres and will catapult our party towards recapturing the past glory,” said Chennithala.

Chennithala adds that they are going through an unprecedented crisis and Sonia Gandhi has been struggling, despite her health issues, to rudder this boat through these tempestuous times.

“But to match the crookedness and the robustness of the BJP, we need to have your young and dynamic leadership at the helm of affairs. The nation had appreciated the highest democratic principles shown by your good self while abdicating the presidentship of Congress party, taking up the moral responsibility for UPA’s debacle in 2014 general elections. However, it’s time for you to kindly reconsider your decision. The Assembly elections to Bihar and five other states are due in nine months’ time,” notes Chennithala.

He ends his letter by saying that this is an appeal to your good self on behalf of all the Congress Workers and the secular and liberal citizenry of this great nation to take over the reins of the party and lead us in this struggle to re-discover the spirit of India.

Gandhi is the Wayanad Lok Sabha member and this letter comes at a time when Kerala has its Assembly elections in May 2021.

Political circles in Rajasthan were on Monday agog with talks of a likely resolution to the crisis arising out of rebellion by Congress MLAs owing allegiance to Sachin Pilot. Congress sources claimed that the Pilot camp lawmakers will meet Rajya Sabha MP KC Venugopal during the day and even meet with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thereafter.

The Congress sources said that veteran party leader Ahmed Patel had pitched in to resolve the issue that had threatened the survival of the Ashok Gehlot government after the Pilot camp raised a banner of revolt over the state leadership.

The Congress had sacked Pilot as Deputy Chief Minister and the Rajasthan Congress President. So far, Gehlot has stayed put in the CM chair amid claims and counter-claims on attempts to poach MLAs.

On Sunday night, a Congress Legislature Party meeting was held in a Jaisalmer hotel, where MLAs from the Gehlot camp are lodged. In this meeting, they held mixed views on taking back the rebels into the party fold.

While a few MLAs suggested that the rebel camp leader should be taken back in view of the “wafer-thin margin” of the Gehlot government over the opposition in the Assembly, others were not ready to budge and were not in favor of taking back the Pilot followers.

Meanwhile, the Gehlot camp in Jaisalmer is keeping a wary eye on any development in Delhi vis-a-vis the proposed meeting.

A senior Congress worker confirmed to IANS that a few Ministers from Rajasthan had hinted to the meeting and that the views of party MLAs were sought ahead of the scheduled meeting on reinducting Pilot and his loyalist MLAs.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday once again attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-China border face-off saying he is 100 percent focused on building his own image and “one man’s image is not a substitute for a national vision”.

“Prime Minister is 100 percent focused on building his own image. India’s captured institutions are all busy doing this task. One man’s image is not a substitute for a national vision,” he said in a tweet attaching the third video of the series.

In the video, the Congress MP from Kerala’s Wayanad said, “Psychologically you will have to deal with the Chinese from a position of strength.”

Emphasizing how India should respond to China, he said that if you deal with them from a position of “strength” you can work with them, you can get what you need and it can be actually done. “But if they sense weakness then you had it. And the first thing is you are not going to take on China without a vision,” the Congress leader said, adding that he doesn’t mean a national vision, but an international vision.

Talking about China’s ambitious ‘belt and road’ project, Rahul Gandhi said, “Belt and Road is an attempt to change the nature of the planet. India has to have a global vision and if they have now to become an idea, and it has to become a global idea the thing that is going to protect India is actually thinking big.”

On India’s border issue with China, he said, of course, we have this border issue and we have to resolve this. “But we have to change our approach, we have to change how we think, this is the point at which where the road parts, if we go this way we become a major player and if we go another way we become irrelevant. And that is why I am aggravating because I can see that a huge opportunity is being lost,” he said.

Attacking the government, the Congress leader said, “Why because we are not thinking in the long term, we are not thinking big and we are disturbing our internal balance, we are fighting among ourselves.”

Pointing out at the political scenario in the country, he said, just look at the politics, all day long Indians are fighting Indians, it is because there is “no clear cut” vision going forward. “And I know that the Prime Minister is an opponent and my responsibility is to question him and put pressure on him so he does his work. His responsibility is to give the vision and it’s not there and I can tell you it’s not there and that is why China is in there today,” he added.

Last Friday (July 17), Rahul Gandhi released his first video and questioned the government’s foreign policy. He slammed the Narendra Modi government over the face-off with China in Ladakh. He said China chose this time to intrude in our land as India’s foreign policy, economy, and relationship with neighboring countries are disrupted.

In his second video released on Monday (July 20), the Congress leader said Modi fabricated a “fake” strongman image to come to power and now his biggest strength is “India’s biggest weakness”.