The three-day Congress’ 85th plenary session began on Friday with a meeting of the party’s steering committee during which the crucial decision on holding Congress Working Committee (CWC) polls would be taken.
The plenary session is being held in Chhattisgarh’s Nava Raipur under the presidency of Mallikarjun Kharge but former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were yet to arrive and will skip the steering committee meeting. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also yet to arrive.
The party is expected to take key decisions in the session that would lay a clear roadmap for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and also finalize a strategy on forging poll tie-ups with like-minded parties to take on the BJP.
The plenary session comes at a time when the Congress faces unprecedented challenges electorally and even to its primacy in the Opposition bloc. While the Congress hopes to stitch an anti-BJP front for 2024 polls having said that it alone has the moral and the organizational power to lead it, clouds of disunity are hovering over it.
The TMC, BRS and AAP appear reluctant to accept the Congress stewardship and BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao has been holding his own parleys to rein in the BJP.
On the first day of the three-day session, the steering committee, which is playing the role of the Working Committee (the previous one was dissolved until a new CWC is formed), will meet at 10 AM this morning and decide on whether there will be elections to the top decision-making body or not.
On Thursday, when asked whether there will be elections for the CWC, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that the steering committee to decide on it tomorrow, adding that according to the party’s constitution, it is the steering committee which decides.
“But we are ready for the (CWC) polls, all preparations have been made. If the decision is in favour of the polls, then elections will take place,” he said.
In case the CWC elections are not held, then 23 of the 25 CWC members will be nominated by the Congress president, who along with the leader of the party in Parliament get ex-officio membership of the CWC.
Of the 23 remaining members, 12 are to be elected and 11 nominated.
Talking about the agenda of the session, Ramesh said there will be a meeting of the steering committee at 10 am Friday after which there will be a meeting of the subjects committee at 4 pm the same day in which six resolutions will be considered. The resolutions will be discussed on February 25 and 26.
“These resolutions will be discussed on February 25 and 26. On February 25, resolutions related to political, economic and international matters will be discussed and on February 26, resolutions related to agriculture and farmers welfare; social justice and empowerment; and youth, employment and education will be discussed,” Ramesh said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will give a speech at 2 PM on February 26, followed by a public meeting at 4 PM.
(With PTI inputs)