This is the first CWC meeting after Rahul Gandhi assumed the charge of the party and constituted the CWC with a mix of old and young faces from the party, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls on 2019.
The Congress Working Committee on Sunday authorised party president Rahul Gandhi to take decisions on pre-poll and post-poll alliances for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said the Congress chief would form the election campaign committee.
“Rahul Gandhi has been authorised to form the election campaign committee and take decisions on the pre-poll and post-poll alliance,” Gehlot said.
Rahul said the party is setting up a group which is going to do the alliance.
"We are setting up a group that is going to do that (alliance)," he said on being asked on alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
These alliances, Congress party leaders told Outlook, would be forged from state to state. The understanding within the Congress is that it is the single largest party within the Opposition umbrella and therefore, would be able to set the agenda on seat-sharing after the polls, and also project its party’s top leader as the PM candidate.
Of late, leaders from regional parties have indicated that Rahul’s leadership would not be acceptable to them in 2019. The party has, therefore, asserted that it wou;d frame an agenda to push the party to victory on its own in the forthcoming state polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
If it manages to secure these victories, the Congress would be in a better position to bargain. The weakness of the party in Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state, is a formidable challenge for the Congress. With UP not under its belt, it is in no position to dictate terms to parties in other states. “We will improve our position in 2019 over what we got in 2004, at the national level. We will still emerge the single biggest party,” Surjewala said.
The other significant decision taken in the meeting was to project the Congress president as the next PM face of the party.
In the more than five-hour discussion, the EVM issue was also raised by several leaders.
“The EVM issue was raised today. We have stuck to the position adopted in the political resolution. The people have lost their trust in EVMs, and there should be a revert to the earlier system of paper ballot,” said Randeep Singh Surjewala, Congress national spokesperson.
He acknowledged that the issue of EVM was raised by several leaders. They expressed concerns over the malfunction of EVMs. “This remains an important issue,” he said.
Earlier in the day, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi lashed out at the Narendra Modi government, saying the people of the country have to be rescued from a "dangerous regime" that is "compromising" with India's democracy.
In her address to the newly constituted Congress Working Committee, which met for the first time under the chairmanship of Rahul, Sonia also cautioned the people about the "reign of despair and fear" heaped upon India's deprived and poor.
She said the rhetoric of Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows his "desperation" reflecting that the "reverse countdown" of the Modi government has begun.
“We are committed to make alliances work and we are all with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in this endeavour.
“We have to rescue our people from a dangerous regime that is compromising with the democracy of India,” she said.
The CWC was constituted on July 17 where it was announced that it would meet on July 22 .
This is the first CWC meeting after Rahul assumed the charge of the party and constituted the CWC with a mix of old and young faces from the party, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls on 2019.
The Congress described the revamped CWC as a bridge between the past, present and future and asked party men to rise and fight for India's oppressed.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, in his address assured Rahul Gandhi that he and all other Congressmen will help him in the onerous task of restoring India's social harmony and economic development.
“I assure Rahul Gandhiji that we will fully support him in his onerous task of restoring India's social harmony and economic development,” he said, rejecting the culture of constant "self praise and jumlas" (gimmicks), as against solid policy framework for driving the engine of growth.
Singh said the claim of doubling farm income by 2022 will require an agricultural growth rate of 14 per cent, which is nowhere in sight.
“The new CWC is an institution comprising experience and energy and will act as a bridge between the past, present and the future,” Rahul said as he called upon Congressmen and women to rise and fight for the India's oppressed.
The Congress president also reminded the role of the Congress as the voice of India as also its responsibility of present and future, charging that the BJP attacks institutions, Dalits, tribals, backwards, minorities and the poor.
(With agency inputs)