The first meeting of the newly-constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is underway in New Delhi today. The Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is chairing this meeting which is being held at Parliament Annexe.
While the high-on-optics show in Lok Sabha is seen as one that flustered the BJP, the Congress now has the tougher task of negotiating a way through ambitious allies and non-aligned parties to craft a stable front against the BJP for next year’s general elections.
The new CWC which includes 23 members, 19 permanent invitees and 9 special invitees was constituted on July 17. The meeting is being held to discuss the current political scenario of the country and to come up with the party’s strategy for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Mr Gandhi has already indicated that his party will be working with opposition parties and negotiations are on to craft out state-specific alliances. The CWC is expected to give him a go-ahead in the matter, said sources in the Congress. Speaking at the CWC meeting P Chidambaram called for the broadest political alliance to defeat the BJP-led NDA.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, while addressing the key meeting, attacked Prime Minister Modi for bringing the culture of “constant self-praise and jumlas as against solid policy framework”. Manmohan Singh also pointed out that the PM’s claim of doubling farm income by 2022 will require an agricultural growth rate of 14%, which is nowhere in sight.
In his address today, the Congress president, who took charge after 20 years of his mother Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, reminded the members of the party’s role as the “voice of India” and its responsibility of the “present and future”.
Addressing the leaders, Sonia Gandhi said that the rhetoric of PM Modi shows desperation which reflects that the reverse countdown of the Modi government has begun. “We have to rescue our people from a dangerous regime that is compromising the democracy of India,” Sonia said.
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