Cong to focus on state alliances in 2019 push
First meeting of party’s top body in Rahul era; group to be formed for prepoll pacts
NEWDELHI: The Congress on Sunday formally sounded the bugle for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as it decided to go for strategic and state-specific tie-ups to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, and insisted that there will be “reasonable give and take” while striking alliances.
The Congress maintained that Rahul Gandhi, 48, will be the party’s face and will lead the campaign for the 2019 polls. The decisions were taken at a fivehour meeting of the newly constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC), which authorised Gandhi to take a call on pre- or post-poll alliances. He was mandated to form different committees for elections. “We are setting up a group that is going to do that,” Gandhi said on being asked if the party had started forming alliances for 2019.
Flaying the Congress’s bid to bring forward a united opposition against Modi, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the party was playing the role of a suicide bomber and would sink others too. He termed the CWC as “Congress Darbari Committee”.
While 239 Congress leaders and office-bearers from across the country were invited to the CWC meeting, former general secretaries Digvijaya Singh and Janardan Dwivedi, who were on Tuesday dropped from the party’s highest decision-making body, gave it a miss.
Gandhi, who had on Friday delivered one of his most aggressive speeches in the Lok Sabha during a debate on the no-confidence motion, warned party leaders of strict action if they spoke out of turn at a time when the Congress was fighting a “bigger and fundamental” battle for freedom.
The issue was also flagged by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior general secretary Ashok Gehlot. “Rahul Gandhi clearly pointed out and gave friendly advice to partymen that in view of the larger goal -- the 2019 election -- they should maintain discipline in both their language and conduct,” Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.