The Congress Working Committee on Sunday authorised party president Rahul Gandhi to take decisions on pre-poll and post-poll alliances. All India Congress Committee General Secretary Ashok Gehlot made the announcement after the first meeting of the revamped Congress Working Committee at Parliament House Annexe in New Delhi.
“We are setting up a group that is going to do that [alliances],” Gandhi later told ANI.
Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the Congress expects to better its 2004 performance in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. “People will decide,” he said. “Once Congress party becomes the single largest party touching the same magic figure of 200 or more, naturally Congress party will be leading whoever else wants to come and walk hand in hand. Naturally then Congress president would be the only face to be projected. Congress would fight this election by putting forward our leader – Rahul Gandhi.”
Earlier during the meeting, Gandhi said the party’s role is to be the “voice of India” and that it has a responsibility towards Dalits, tribal communities, minorities and the poor, whom the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has “attacked”.
He said expanding the party’s vote base was the biggest task. “In each constituency, we have to find people who have not voted for us and develop a strategy to reach out to them and win back their trust,” he said, according to ANI.
Gandhi referred to the new working committee as an “institution comprising experience and energy, as a bridge between the past, present and the future,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted. He called upon Congress workers to “rise and fight for India’s oppressed.”
Gandhi had revamped the committee on July 17, dropping party stalwarts like Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath, as well as other some senior leaders, and including fresh faces. The new committee includes 23 members, 19 permanent invitees and nine special invitees.
Former party chief Sonia Gandhi claimed that the Narendra Modi government had “heaped a reign of despair and fear upon India’s deprived and poor”. She added that Modi’s “rhetoric” shows his “desperation”, because the “reverse countdown of the Modi government has begun”. She said in order to “rescue our people from a dangerous regime”, the Congress was committed to making its alliances work and that they would all stand with Rahul Gandhi.
Party leaders like Sachin Pilot, Shakti Singh Gohil, Ramesh Chennithala, however, said the party should continue with strategic alliances but remain at the centre of tie-ups, and Rahul Gandhi should be the face of it, reported ANI.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, on the other hand, said the party should go for alliances only in states where it is needed, reported News18. He said the Congress could do well in 12 states and take its tally to 150. “For the rest of the states, regional state-wise regional alliances is the need of the hour,” he said.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh supported him. “Alliances will be dependent on where the national leadership takes us, and wherever it takes us we will go,” he told reporters. “People are expressing confidence in Congress now.”
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the government for its “culture of constant self-praise” and Modi’s “jumlas”, instead of creating a solid policy framework, Surjewala said. He added that Singh pointed out that the agricultural sector would have to grow by 14% annually for the Modi government’s vision of doubling farm incomes by 2022 to be realised.
Earlier, reports said that the meeting will also be attended by secretaries and joint secretaries of the All India Congress Committee, heads of departments and cells, office-bearers of the Congress Parliamentary Party and members of the central election committee. All former Congress chief ministers were also to attend it.
Gandhi had attacked the Narendra Modi-led government during a debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on Friday. He accused it of neglecting farmer debts, being untruthful about the Rafale aircraft deal with France, and for the money allegedly spent on Modi’s “marketing”. At the end of his speech, Gandhi walked up to the prime minister and hugged him.
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