Key Points

Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, first illustrated the difference between a "wedding horse" and a "race horse" and how state sometimes party leaders fit one for the other, resulting in total mismatch and electoral losses.

He also talked of "unfit horses" and on the need for tired party leaders to make way for younger lot. He said those who cannot slog should not remain there as stumbling blocks.

"Now we have to differentiate between a race horse and a wedding horse and lame (langda) horse....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 who are not in a good mood, who are taking too much tension. Now we have to differentiate between a race horse and a wedding horse. Earlier, I used to say that there are two types. Kamal Nath had said that the Congress party sometimes sends a race horse to the wedding procession and sometimes makes the wedding horse stand in the race line. But there is a third category, which is a lame (langda) horse, so we have to differentiate. We have to retire the lame horse, so this change has to be brought," he said.

Congress has faced successive electoral defeats in Madhya Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi talked of empowering the district presidents, making them a fulcrum of party's revival.

He gave an inkling of the work expected from the new district chiefs.

"The new district president will be different from the previous one...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, if a Dalit, Adivasi or backward class, poor general caste woman is beaten up or suppressed, if Congress party is standing there or not...whether there is a good relationship between worker and leader," he said.

- ANI