The first meeting of the new CWC appointed by Mallikarjun Kharge will be held in Hyderabad on 16 September; party plans mammoth rally on 17.
Published Sep 04, 2023 | 4:24 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 04, 2023 | 4:35 PM
File photo of Mallikarjun Kharge. (Twitter)
In a move aimed at giving its poll campaign a fillip in Telangana, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge has decided to hold his first CWC meeting in Hyderabad. In addition, the party is also gearing up to make five big-ticket poll promises, popularised as ‘guarantees’ during Karnataka assembly elections.
The first meeting of the reconstituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) — the highest policymaking body of the Congress — will be held in Hyderabad on 16 September.
The maiden meeting of the committee, formed after Mallikarjun Kharge took over as the president of the AICC, will be followed by an extended meeting of CWC the next day, when its members will meet with the state presidents, CLP leaders, and Parliamentary Party office-bearers, coinciding with the anniversary of the Hyderabad state joining in the Indian Union.
Party matriarch Sonia Gandhi, its former president Rahul Gandhi, and key functionaries are expected to attend the extended meeting of the CWC and the mega rally. The CWC meeting and the rally come on the eve of a special session of the parliament called for by the Union government starting 18 September, whose agenda is still unclear.
AICC general secretary KC Venugopal told reporters in Delhi on Monday, 4 September, said the party would on 17 September hold a mammoth public meeting on Hyderabad’s outskirts, where it would unveil the five guarantees it was going to offer to the people after coming to power in Telangana.
The party, in Karnataka, came out with similar guarantees, which paid it rich electoral dividends by catapulting it to power.
On 17 September evening, a cavalcade of CWC members, PCC presidents, and CLP leaders will leave for all 119 Assembly segments in Telangana for an overnight stay.
The next morning, there will be a workers’ meeting in each constituency, followed by door-to-door distribution of the pamphlets listing out five guarantees, the charge-sheet copies that the party has come up with against Telangana Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao and his government, participate in community lunch, and finally take out a mini version of the Bharat Jodo Yatra to the town centres, where there is either a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, or Komaram Bheem.
The CWC meeting and the programmes that would follow — including a public meeting, the venue of which would be decided soon — are expected to turbo-charge the party workers as well as leaders to make a spirited effort to pull down KCR’s government in the assembly elections.
Congress president Shri @kharge will convene the first meeting of the newly constituted Working Committee on September 16 in Hyderabad, Telangana.
On September 17, there will be an extended Working Committee meeting. All CWC members, PCC Presidents, CLP leaders and Parliamentary… pic.twitter.com/VjwmZ5fEgx
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 4, 2023
Venugopal also announced the programme for the first anniversary of the commencement of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra on 7 September.
He said the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which went on for 580 km in Karnataka, helped the party come to power there.
He recalled how Rahul’s padayatra wound through the entire nation, covering a distance of 4,018 km from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir.
He said there would be similar yatras for one hour — from 5 pm to 6 pm — in all the 722 districts in the country followed by public meetings.
He parried an answer on whether the second edition of the Bharat Jodo Yatra would begin on 2 October 2, coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary. He only said: “Just wait and see.”
Venugopal said that since the Parliament session was going to be held from 18 September to 22 September, a special parliamentary strategy group meeting would be held at 5 pm on Tuesday at 10 Janpath.
At Kharge’s residence, there would be similar meetings with like-minded parties.
Fielding a volley of questions on the proposed “One Nation, One Election” policy, Venugopal said that the issue would be debated thoroughly in the party fora and also with the constituents of the INDIA coalition before finalising a course of action to stall the Union government’s move.
He said if the Centre went in for early elections, it would mean that it was panicking after the INDIA meeting. “We are ready for anything. These are the days anything could happen any time,” he said.
To a question on Tamil Nadu Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comment that Sanatana Dharma was against social justice, Venugopal said the Congress believed in Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava — a concept coined by Mahatma Gandhi that embodies the equality of the destination of the paths followed by all religions.
“It is our ideology. Every party is entitled to have its opinion. We respect all faiths and all beliefs,” he said.
