Sonia aide gives pep talk to Gujarat Cong ahead of polls

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel today asked party workers in Gujarat to gear up for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and advised them not to get bogged down by electoral setbacks.
Victory and defeat are part of electoral politics and party workers must prepare themselves for next year's Parliamentary polls without getting depressed by setbacks, he said at a state Congress gathering here.
Patel, Political Secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, expressed confidence that his party will emerge a winner in the polls.
"Parties face victory and defeat, but we need not get influenced by them too much. It is the responsibility of leaders and workers to raise people-centric issues and take them forward."

Patel was addressing Gujarat Congress' extended Executive Committee meeting which was attended by officer-bearers from taluka (block) to State level.
The meet took stock of the party affairs in Gujarat, where Congress lost Assembly elections in December last year, and mulled on strategies for the upcoming big poll fight.

"The UPA Government at the Centre has implemented many schemes which are people-oriented. They need to be taken to the last man and party workers should be the medium to do that," Patel said.
He said party leaders like Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are working hard for the elections due in a few months. "The organisation plays a key role in winning elections. We should work to strengthen the organisation."

"Our opponents are spreading lies and we should gear up to face and expose them by using all the available mediums, including the social media.
"I am confident Congress will emerge a winner in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls," Patel said.
The meeting also passed a resolution congratulating Sonia, Rahul and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for ensuring passage of Lokpal Bill in the just-concluded winter session of Parliament.