Rahul gets CWC nod to forge alliances for 2019
The extended CWC on Sunday authorised Congress president Rahul Gandhi to forge alliances with like-minded parties for the 2019 Lok Sabha election to take on the BJP.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the newly-constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC), Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) members from various states.
The party also authorised Gandhi to constitute a committee to work out alliances with various national and regional parties to form a grand national alliance.
Thirty-five to 40 leaders spoke at Sunday’s meeting where they all stressed that the Congress should play a lead role in forging an antibjp front.
Some leaders said Gandhi being the leader of the principal opposition party should be the face of the national alliance.
Asked about party leaders wanting Gandhi to be the face of the alliance, senior Congress leader Ambika Soni said, “Naturally, he is the leader of the main national (opposition) party, and we would want our leader to be the face of the opposition alliance.”
Senior party leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram gave a detailed presentation on how the party could be strengthened with the help of allies in various states.
In her address to the newlyconstituted Congress Working Committee, which met for the first time under the chairmanship of party chief Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi 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 making 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.
After playing second fiddle to HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal-secular to keep the BJP out of power in Karnataka, the Congress president has indicated that his party was willing to work with opposition parties. This approach has the approval of top regional leaders like Mamata Banerjee, who want the smaller parties well-entrenched in states to be accorded respect. In these alliances, Congress needs to take a backseat.
In his address, Sunday, the Congress president, who took charge after 20 years of his mother Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, reminded the members of the party’s role as the “voice of India” and its responsibility of the ‘present and future”.
NEW DELHI: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Sunday said that the countdown of Narendra Modi government has begun and that is reflected in Prime Minister's rhetoric. She was speaking at the newly constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) chaired by his son and party president Rahul Gandhi.
"Sonia Gandhi cautions about the reign of despair and fear heaped upon India's deprived and poor. Points out that rhetoric of PM Modi shows his desperation reflecting that reverse countdown of Modi Govt has begun, "Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
Rahul Gandhi on Sunday chaired his first meeting of the newly constituted CWC after taking over as Congress president in December last.
In his remarks at the CWC, Gandhi said the Congress is the voice of India.
"Rahul Gandhi reminds qua the role of Congress as the voice of India as also its responsibility of present and future, as BJP attacks institutions, Dalits, tribals, backwards, minorities and poor," Surjewala said.
The Congress chief called the newly constituted CWC as an institution comprising of experience & energy, as a bridge between the past, present and the future. He called upon Congressmen and women to rise and fight for India's oppressed, Surjewala added.
The crucial meeting of the revamped CWC is underway in Parliament House Annexe and comes two days after the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha which the Opposition lost.
Speaking at the meeting, former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh "rejected the culture of constant self praise & Jumlas of PM as against solid policy framework for driving the engine of growth."
Dr. Singh pointed out that claim of doubling farm income by 2022 will require an Agriculture Growth Rate of 14%, which is nowhere in sight, Surjewala said.
The new CWC, which was announced last week after Gandhi deliberated on its composition for close to seven months, is expected to take stock of the current political, economic and internal and external security situation of the country besides discussing party strategy for the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
There is also a likelihood of the new committee members brainstorming on the strategies to be adopted to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP in the run up to assembly elections later this year and General Elections 2019.
Gandhi has set the tone for the Congress strategy by going forward and hugging Prime Minister Modi during the noconfidence motion discussions in Lok Sabha and by proclaiming that he will counter the BJP'S hatred and anger with Congress' love and compassion.
Among those present at today's meeting include former prime minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, top Congress leaders AK Antony, Motilal Vora, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ashok Gehlot among others.
This is the meeting of extended CWC which also consists of all state party chiefs and legislature party leaders apart from the regular CWC members, permanent and special invitees to the committee.
Gandhi's CWC has 23 regular members instead of 25 allowed by the party constitution. It has 18 permanent and eight special invitees.