Rahul will be seen in new avatar post yatra: Digvijaya

Turuvukere: Rahul Gandhi has become a symbol of "Bharat Jodo" (unite India) and will be seen in a new avatar post the Congress' pan-India march, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh said on Sunday.

Singh, who has been a part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra since it started from Kanyakumari, told in an interview that the march has definitely impacted the Congress positively as it is for the first time after many years that the grand old party is being discussed in remote areas, villages and people are very impressed that Rahul Gandhi is walking all the way.

The yatra will help strengthen the party, he said while noting that the commitment to ideology and leadership is missing in the Congress at present. Rahul Gandhi is spearheading the yatra that began from Kanyakumari and will end in Jammu and Kashmir. A host of Congress leaders will walk 3,500 km during the march.

"In this country, if anyone does 'tyag' (sacrifice), he is always revered. Sonia Gandhi did 'tyag' of the prime minister's post. And here, Rahul Gandhi is walking, sweating in the heat, standing in the rain, fighting all kinds of fake news and defamation. He has become a symbol of Bharat jodo," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.

Asked which way has the Yatra helped Rahul, Singh said, "Well, you shall see him now in his new avatar." He said he has known Rahul for a long time and once he decides to do something, nothing can stop him from achieving that.

"The day he decides, no one will be able to stop him," he said on Rahul's political journey forward. "Frankly, I have always seen him as a very highly committed and ideologically committed person with a highly inquisitive mind. He would not let you go until he has his answers. And, he is a prolific leader and very spiritual too," the veteran Congress leader said.

Singh, who has dropped out of the race for the post of Congress president and became proposer for party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, noted that the Congress is "extremely poor" as an organisation as compared to the BJP, which is a cadre-based party. The Congress is part of a mass movement and new leaders emerge out of past movements. "Obviously, new leadership will emerge from the party," he said, adding those who are taking part in the march have left their homes and showing their commitment.

Elections for the Congress president's post will take place on October 17 and results will be announced on October 19.