The Congress Working Committee (CWC) met yesterday to discuss the political situation in the country and decided to target the government on the issues of corruption and its “failure” to provide jobs to the youth.
The meeting was presided over by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Sources said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and Rafale fighter jet deal with France were among the issues that featured prominently at the meeting.
Gandhi later indicated that the party will launch a campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of assembly elections later this year and Lok Sabha polls next year.
“The CWC met today. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended today’s meeting,” Gandhi said in a tweet.
It was second meeting of the CWC since Gandhi became party chief in December last year.
Meanwhile, a broad understanding has been reached among major opposition parties to give a joint fight to the Bharatiya Janata Party in next year’s Lok Sabha elections, a senior Congress leader said.
“There is a consensus to fight elections jointly to check division of votes. A respectable number of seats will be given to the allies,” Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar said.
As modalities for seat-sharing are being finalised on a state-to-state basis, and top leaders are in touch for the purpose, the Congress hopes the understanding among opposition parties will be able to finally check the BJP in states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bihar.
The Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress will fight the elections together in Uttar Pradesh, said another senior Congress leader did not want to be named.
The leader said the party already has allies in some states - like the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra. “Congress president Rahul Gandhi has given the go-ahead for the alliance and asked senior party leaders to ensure that the allies get respectable share of seats. Top leaders are in close touch. The Congress already has an alliance in the NCP in Maharashtra. There will also be some understanding in Bihar, Punjab and some other states,” said the leader.
A decision on the united opposition’s prime ministerial candidate will be taken only after the polls, said the leader.
“We don’t want to create any confusion or disruption among the opposition parties at this juncture. The leadership issue is divisive and we don’t want to discuss it at this point,” he added.
The Congress leader claimed that his party was dealing the alliance issue in two stages – first that all of the opposition parties have to together take on the BJP and the prime minister in the 2019 polls; and second, that a decision on the prime ministerial candidate will be taken after the results.
“A broad consensus has been reached among the opposition parties. Our primary job is to defeat the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh).”
The Congress leader expressed confidence that his party would “considerably improve” its performance in next year’s elections, especially in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Haryana. In 2014, the party managed to win only 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, a record low. Striking proper alliances in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra is crucial, he said, claiming that the BJP was expected to lose a major chunk of its seats in these states, which would pave the way for the ouster of Modi.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and senior party leaders walk to All India Congress Committee offices in New Delhi for a meeting yesterday.
