'Race, Baraat And Langde': Rahul Gandhi Categorises Congress Leaders Into Three Types Of Horses In Madhya Pradesh

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was in Bhopal yesterday (3 June) to launch the party's 'Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan' (organisation creation campaign) in Madhya Pradesh (MP), where the party has been reduced to zero Lok Sabha seats.

While addressing Congress leaders, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Gandhi urged them to differentiate between 'baraat ke ghode' and 'race ke ghode' and retire 'langde ghode' (old leaders who are inefficient to work).

He said that old leaders, langde ghode in his words, should not create troubles for the new emerging leaders and if they do so, the party will take action against them. The comments come in backdrop of factionalism in MP Congress.

Explaining his concept of three types of horses, Gandhi said, "Race ke ghode are those leaders who are energetic, while baraat ke ghode are those leaders who are lethargic. We need to differentiate between race ke ghode and baraat ke ghode."

These comments were in light of former MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath's statements that Congress sends energetic leaders to baraat (a marriage procession, ceremonial events in the current context) and makes lethargic leaders do the heavy lifting.

Gandhi also hinted that some of the Congress leaders are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inclined and they need to be taken care of. Criticising the party structure, he said that despite having talented workers, the party is not able to perform well.

The party has decided to conduct organisational overhaul, starting from district presidents. Gandhi asserted that party decisions should come from the bottom and the top leadership would intervene only when needed.