Overview
- Rahul Gandhi, who arrived in Raipur on Sunday, visited the AICC-organised training camp at Abhanpur, planted a sapling, toured an exhibition and gave a roughly one-and-a-half-hour address to district Congress presidents before returning to Delhi.
- The 10-day camp runs from June 20 to 29 and is focused on practical training, including field visits, shramdaan (voluntary community service) and overnight village stays to strengthen grassroots outreach and booth management.
- Senior Chhattisgarh Congress leaders Sachin Pilot, Bhupesh Baghel, Deepak Baij and T. S. Singh Deo received Gandhi at the airport and joined him at the camp and later at a brief roadside snack-shop stop near the airport where he interacted with locals.
- Organisers restricted media access to internal sessions, underlining that the programme is inward-facing and aimed at building organisational capacity rather than staging public events.
- Congress officials say the exercise is intended to rebuild a disciplined local cadre and improve electoral readiness, a change that could lead to tighter booth-level mobilisation and more sustained local issue work in the state.