CHENNAI: Despite not heading the party any longer, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi remains the face of the party in Tamil Nadu as it became further evident from the election campaign songs released by the party’s State unit on Saturday. Most of the numbers are all praise for the former Congress president.
The CD, released at a function in Cuddalore, had six songs. They batted for strengthening the hands of Mr Gandhi ahead of the State Assembly elections next year. Describing him as the only leader who could protect the secular fabric and social justice in the country, the numbers highlighted the achievements and sacrifices of the Nehru family.
Former Chief Minsiter Kamarajar and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KS Alagiri also found mentions in the songs. The brain behind the release of the campaign songs, D Manikandan, a Congress man, said they had to come up with the new songs as the ones used by the party were mostly from the films of yesteryear star Sivaji Ganesan.
He said, “DMK and AIADMK use various high-pitch songs to keep the enthusiasm of their cadres up during public meetings and other party events, while Congress has been relying only on very old songs. They failed to attract even Congress cadre.
So, I wanted to create a new album with energetic beats and did it with the help of like-minded cadres of the party.” With the Assembly elections at least six months away, the Congress has taken the lead over the Dravidian majors in releasing a campaign material.
GK Muralidharan, state general secretary of the party’s farmers wing, said this was the first time Congress had come up with such songs for campaign since 2001. “In the last two decades, the party faced various elections without specific campaign songs.” KS Alagiri told Express that he had recently travelled over 4,000 kms across the State, and the party had completed much of the preparatory works for the election campaign. The newly-released songs would help in keeping up the enthusiasm of cadre during the campaign, he added.