India's main opposition party, Congress, started brainstorming on Friday for the 2024 parliamentary polls and formulate a strategy to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The discussions are being held during the 85th plenary session of Congress in Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh state. The three-day plenary event, entitled 'Haath se Haath Jodo' (Join hand with hand), kicked off on Friday morning with a meeting of the steering committee to finalize the agenda of the session.
Media reports, quoting Congress sources, said the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s president, is expected to be endorsed during the session which ends on Sunday.
The party is also set to establish a strategy to form an alliance with like-minded parties.
Around 15,000 Congress delegates are likely to attend the plenary session. Former party president Sonia Gandhi, her son parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi and her daughter, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are expected to attend on Saturday.
A day before the plenary session, Congress General Secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said in a press conference that after the steering committee meets, the subjects committee will meet and consider six resolutions.
“These resolutions will be discussed on 25 and 26 February. On 25 February, resolutions related to political, economic and international matters will be discussed and on 26 February, resolutions related to agriculture and farmers' welfare; social justice and empowerment; and youth, employment and education will be discussed,” he said.
“On 26 February, the Congress president will deliver a speech and there will be a public meeting,” he added.
Steering Committee Meeting
On Friday morning, during the meeting of Congress' steering committee, it was decided that there will be no elections to elect the Congress Working Committee (CWC), and the party president Kharge will nominate CWC members.
Addressing the media, Ramesh said that the committee "unanimously" decided to authorize the party president to nominate CWC members.
“The decision was taken keeping in mind the political challenges facing the country, facing the Congress party in its capacity as the main Opposition and keeping in mind the far-reaching amendments that we are going to bring about in our party’s Constitution,” he said.
Talking about whether the Gandhis had been consulted on the matter, he said that almost 45 members of the committee who were present on the occasion had shared their views.