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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will arrive in Maharashtra for a one-day trip to Nashik on Wednesday to take stock of the party’s organisational preparedness, meet top state leaders and tribal representatives, and interact with newly appointed district presidents.

On August 22, Rahul Gandhi held the Pune leg of the “Chhatron Ki Goonj” student movement. (PTI)A 10-day training programme in Nashik for newly appointed district Congress presidents will conclude with an interaction with Gandhi. The Maharashtra Congress appointed 69 new district and city presidents in May as part of the organisational revamp.

This will be Gandhi’s second visit to the state since August 22, when he held the Pune leg of the “Chhatron Ki Goonj” student movement against paper leaks, exam irregularities, and rising fees. He dedicated the Pune event to “daughters of the nation.” Gandhi highlighted issues concerning women’s safety, rights, and social control, and lashed out at the “Manusmriti mindset”. The event brought Congress leaders from across Maharashtra to Pune.

The Nashik visit is seen as an effort to strengthen the Congress organisation and its political strategy in the state, where the party governed independently until 1995 and subsequently in coalition with the Nationalist Congress Party from 1999 to 2014. The Congress was a constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government from 2019 to 2022.

Gandhi will deliver an address on “Global Politics and India”, and is expected to speak about the changing world order, the limitations of current diplomatic approaches and the need to build democratic production economies.

The Nashik visit will focus on the tribal students. “[Gandhi]... will meet a delegation of students and representatives of the tribal community and discuss their issues,” said a Congress leader.

A tribal student, who participated in the August 22 “Chhatron Ki Goonj” event, raised the issue. On August 24, Gandhi wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking his intervention as six tribal students were on an indefinite hunger strike in Pune. The 17-day strike ended on August 29 after Fadnavis accepted all their demands, including recruitment for 12,500 posts. On Tuesday, tribal students protested in Nashik.