After facing a crushing defeat in the recent assembly elections in five states, including UP and Punjab, the Congress will do a mega-churning on Sunday (March 13, 2022). During this meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the reasons for the defeat in the elections and the future strategy will be discussed. It is believed that a new strategy to surround the Modi government can also be discussed in this.
Meanwhile, the Congress also denied reports that the members of the Gandhi family would resign from all organizational posts. At the same time, sources said that Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi will preside over the CWC meeting, the top policy-making body of the Congress, at the party headquarters at 4 pm on Sunday.
Interestingly, this CWC meeting is going to take place at a time when the Congress has lost power in Punjab and has also faced crushing defeats in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
Sonia Gandhi has not been campaigning actively for some time, while apart from her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi has been a star campaigner of the Congress. Along with this, the brother-sister pair also plays a major role in important decisions of the party.
Despite a high-level campaign led by Vadra, general secretary in-charge of UP, the Congress could win only two out of 403 seats in the state. The party’s vote share also declined to 2.33 per cent and most of its candidates forfeited their deposits.
In fact, after the party’s second consecutive defeat in the 2019 general elections, Rahul had resigned from the post of Congress President. Sonia then took over the reins of the party again as the interim president. He too had offered to step down in August 2020 following an open rebellion by the G-23, a section of party leaders, but was urged by the CWC to continue.
After the crushing defeat of the Congress in these assembly elections, many leaders of the party’s ‘G23’ group also met on Friday (March 12, 2022), in which the strategy ahead was discussed. Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari attended the meeting held at the residence of former Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Sources say that the leaders of ‘G23’, who are part of the Congress Working Committee, may raise the issue of electoral defeat in the CWC meeting and their old demand for necessary changes in the party organization and ensuring accountability. The key members of the ‘G23’ group are Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma in the Congress Working Committee.
However, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Sunday dismissed as “false and mischievous” reports that claimed members of the Gandhi family would resign from all party posts. He rejected any major change in the party. He said on Twitter that the reports of the alleged resignation are unfair, mischievous and wrong.
Strategy ready for the budget session: Top Congress leaders on Sunday discussed the party’s strategy for the budget session of Parliament that begins on Monday (March 14, 2022). The party along with like-minded parties decided to raise important issues related to public interest. This meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group took place at Sonia’s house.