'Retire lame horses': Rahul Gandhi saddles up for Congress overhaul in MP; BJP asks 'what about you?'

NEW DELHI: As part of the Congress’s internal restructuring drive, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi made a sharp pitch for rejuvenating the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit, using a vivid analogy involving horses to distinguish between performing and non-performing leaders.Addressing party workers and leaders in Bhopal, Gandhi stressed the importance of identifying committed individuals within the party ranks and phasing out those no longer contributing meaningfully.“Now we have to differentiate between a race horse, a wedding horse, and a lame (langda) horse,” he said, drawing laughter and applause. “The district president has come here, and there will be some of you who work for the Congress party with full strength, and there will be some who are a little tired or not in a good mood, who are taking too much tension,” he said.Expanding on the metaphor, Gandhi said, “Earlier, I used to say there are two types. Kamal Nath had said the Congress party sometimes sends a race horse to a wedding procession and sometimes makes the wedding horse stand in the race line. But there is a third category — the lame horse. So we have to differentiate. We have to retire the lame horse. This change has to be brought.”The Congress has suffered repeated electoral setbacks in Madhya Pradesh, prompting calls for deeper organisational reform.

Gandhi said the time had come to empower district presidents and hold them accountable for performance, giving a clear picture of the party’s new expectations.“The new district president will be different from the previous one,” he said. “We will measure their performance in an objective way — whether votes are increasing in local body, MLA, and MP elections. Wherever there is an attack on Congress ideology, whether the party is standing by the people - a Dalit, Adivasi, backward class, or poor general caste woman - these things will matter.

And whether there is a good relationship between worker and leader,” Rahul said.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Anil Vij took a swipe at the Congress leader over his analogy. "If Rahul Gandhi calls all his workers horses, having different varieties, including procession, race, and battle, then tell him his quality. Which horse is he? Does he belong to the procession horses, lame horses, or war horses?" he asked.