Congmen at CWC meet: Fresh beginning needed

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Affirming their faith in the Gandhi family, the top brass of the Congress party on Sunday resolved to put the poor results of the Assembly elections in five states behind them and make a fresh beginning to win back the faith of the electorate.

Concerted efforts would be made to take on the BJP with or without the support of anti- saffron parties in the coming elections and try to build a strong anti-BJP front before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, these leaders asserted.

If sources are to be believed, the Congress Working Committee ( CWC) meeting presided over by AICC President Sonia Gandhi, and attended by top leaders, dwelt at length on what went wrong in the assembly elections in which the Congress even lost miserably in Punjab where it had been in power. Leaders felt that the absence of a formidable force on the lines of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), an umbrella of several parties, led to the division of votes and helped the BJPo win easily in four states excluding Punjab where the Aam Aadmi Party romped home.

As far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned, the sources said the CWC observed that the party’s base had eroded as the Congress has been out of power for over two decades. Though AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tried her level best to change the fortunes of the party, she was unsuccessful due to the absence of a strong cadre. In Punjab, internal bickering led to the poll debacle, the CWC concluded.

The leaders opined that whatever has happened must be forgotten to make a fresh beginning and that would be possible if leaders in all states vowed to work hard in the next two years to revive the party by holding morchas against the BJP led NDA government and by exposing the faults of the government. The leaders must come out of their ivory towers and hit the streets to show that the Congress still cares for the common people.

In the meantime, AICC President Sonia Gandhi must hold talks with regional parties to build an anti-BJP front and make it strong in the next 24 months before the crucial Lok Sabha polls. If possible, talks for seat sharing with like-minded parties must be held in the states going to Assembly elections in the next two years. The pending appointments to various Pradesh Congress Committees must be done at the earliest to enable them to get active, sources told News Trail.

With youth playing an important role in the elections, the Grand Old Party of the country has to change its strategy to woo youth. To achieve this, the Youth Congress Committees must be made active and should chalk out programmes to attract the youth population towards the Congress. The weaknesses of the BJP must be fully exploited in the next 24 months to get closer to the people. The regional parties which have left the BJPled NDA for one or the other reason, must be contacted to form an alliance, sources added.