The Congress on Thursday announced the launch of a nationwide campaign to raise several issues such as the alleged attack on the Constitution, an increase in communal violence and price rise.
There will also be a “major organisational revamp” in 2025, party General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said.
“There will be an examination of accountability of leaders at all levels,” he said after a meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee in Karnataka’s Belagavi.
Congress leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh, participated in the meeting on Thursday.
Venugopal said that a nationwide movement named “Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan Abhiyan” would begin with a rally in Karnataka’s Belagavi on Friday and conclude on January 26, in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow.
“During this month, rallies and marches will be organised in every block, district and state as well,” the Congress said in a statement.
However, the rally planned on Friday was cancelled after the death of senior Congress leader and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Following the conclusion of the “Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan Abhiyan” in January, the movement will take the shape of a nationwide public outreach campaign called the “Samvidhan Bachao Rashtriya Padayatra [Save the Constitution march]”, the statement added.
This would be organised between January 26, 2025, and January 26, 2026, and see participation from party leaders in all states, it said. It would include padayatras, seminars, workshops for workers, public meetings and rallies.
“To sustain the momentum generated by these transformative movements, significant reforms within the organisation at all levels are imperative,” the party said. “While recognising that organisational renewal is a continuing process, it must be accelerated and intensified now.”
Speaking after the meeting on Thursday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that decisions on the strengthening of the organisation would be taken at the block, mandal and district levels by the Congress leadership. “It will start immediately and will conclude in 2025,” he added.
Venugopal said that during the 13-month nationwide campaign, the party would “raise the issue of attack on Constitution, degradation of values of the Constitution, people’s issues such as price rise and corruption”.
The All India Congress Committee will meet in April at Gujarat’s Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, Venugopal added.
The meeting on Thursday came amid setbacks for the Congress, along with its INDIA bloc partners, in the form of defeats in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls. However, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress coalition won the Jharkhand Assembly election in November.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition alliance won 234 seats. While the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance won the election, its majority in the Lower House shrunk.
Also read: Five lessons for today’s India from the Congress session in Belgaum a century ago
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