The Congress’s preparations for the critical Gujarat elections this year-end have muddled along without any central oversight, at a time the party has proclaimed that its entire machinery is “immersed” in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and its future depends on the success of the unique socio-political project.

While Rahul Gandhi, who led the Gujarat campaign in 2017 and made a huge impact, is likely to be seen this time in a guest appearance, the Rajasthan crisis has come as an additional worry for the party because chief minister Ashok Gehlot was supposed to look after the Gujarat preparations this time. Gehlot was appointed special observer for Gujarat by Sonia Gandhi a few weeks ago.

It was also expected that Gehlot’s ascendance to the post of Congress president would have a positive influence on neighbouring Gujarat but the eruption of the political crisis in Rajasthan has disrupted the entire plan. Gehlot is now torn between managing Rajasthan and his presidential ambitions, leaving Gujarat adrift. What is worse, the AICC in-charge for Gujarat is Raghu Sharma, an MLA from Rajasthan, who too has been sucked into the vortex of his state’s politics.

A desperate Gujarat leadership is now trying to get Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to extensively campaign over the next two months as the Assembly elections are expected to be held in December.

Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kerala’s Wayanad on Wednesday. PTI

With general secretary in charge of party organisation K.C. Venugopal also spending most of his time at the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is passing through Kerala, the central oversight on Gujarat is almost missing this time.

But the top functionaries barely appear worried. Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh told a media conference in Wayanad, Kerala, on Wednesday: “The entire Congress party is immersed in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. You see different kinds of headlines about the Congress, but our sole concern is the Yatra. The Congress party’s future depends on this. We are already seeing a resurgent, aggressive Congress and a new Rahul Gandhi.”

Ramesh has been trying to create a Gujarat angle in the Yatra by pointing out that Rahul had gone to Sabarmati Ashram for Mahatma Gandhi’s blessings and addressed a rally on September 5, a day before reaching Kanyakumari for the launch of the march.

Ramesh said several times that the Yatra campsite reverberated with Gujarat every morning as two bhajans that Mahatma Gandhi liked were played: “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram” and “Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye jo peed parayi jane re.”

But there is more to politics than symbolism, that too in a state that is under the control of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The local leadership on Wednesday took out a rath yatra in Saurashtra to woo the Patel community.

Chanting the slogan “Chalo Congress ke saath, Maa ke dwar”, thousands of party workers under the leadership of state unit chief Jagdish Thakor and Shaktisinh Gohil offered prayers at the temples of Maa Umiya and Maa Khodiyar, the reigning deities of the Leuva and Kadva Patels.

While such endeavours in the past have drawn allegations of the Congress indulging in “soft Hindutva”, the leaders believe the most urgent need is to contest the perception that the BJP monopolises Hindu votes. “The Congress always worshipped the Goddess during Navratra and there is nothing wrong in it,” Thakor said.

The rath yatra visited Khodaldham, the religious seat of power of the Patidar community where the influential leader Naresh Patel welcomed the participants.

Naresh Patel had been in negotiations with the top leadership to join the Congress but backed out at the last minute. Congress sources, however, claim his sympathies are with the party and they hope to repeat the good performance in the politically significant Saurashtra region in 2017.