The Congress has drawn up a two-month mass-contact programme to sustain the momentum built by the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which ends around January 26 next year.
It has also decided to hold the party’s 85th plenary in Raipur in the second half of February.
The plenary needs to ratify the election of new party president Mallikarjun Kharge. A new Congress Working Committee will also be constituted there. The party constitution provides for the election of 12 CWC members while the remaining 12 are nominated by the president. There has been no CWC election in a long time.
The old CWC, which got transformed into the steering committee after the election of the new president, met on Sunday to discuss the political road map to be followed after the completion of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
It was decided that a nationwide “Haath Se Haath Jodo” campaign will be held from January 26. The threetier programme will involve block-level padyatras (marches), district-level conventions and public rallies in every state. The block-level marches will cover all the gram panchayats and hand over to every citizen a letter written by Rahul Gandhi and a “chargesheet” against the Narendra Modi government.
Announcing the programme, the general secretary in charge of organisation, K.C. Venugopal, said a Mahila Padyatra led by Priyanka Gandhi would be organised in every state during this period.
These programmes have been designed to ensure that the party’s public connect does not disappear suddenly after its greatest-ever mass contact programme, the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Expressing gratitude to Rahul for the gigantic exercise, the party has indicated its readiness to sustain the grassroots politics in future.
The meeting of the steering committee, headed by Kharge and attended by Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders, passed a resolution taking note of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and thanking the millions of people and party workers who have participated in it.
“The Yatra listens to and speaks with people from all sections of society every day, especially youth, women, farmers and the working class, directly communicating its message of equality, fraternity and harmony,” the resolution said.
“It is the same message which India’s spiritual leaders and social reformers preached, the leaders of our freedom struggle under Mahatma Gandhi fought for, and our Constitution upholds.”
The resolution added: “The committee particularly appreciated the leadership of former president Rahul Gandhi, whose tapasya, unfailing determination, and love for India and her people have been critical to the success of the Yatra.”
The Yatra completed its Madhya Pradesh stretch on Sunday to enter Rajasthan through Jhalawar district. While the walkathon has attracted huge public response through its 2,500km journey over the last three months, party communications chief Jairam Ramesh hoped the Rajasthan leg would prove even more successful.
A big rally has been planned in Alwar, Rajasthan.
Sunday’s meeting expressed concern at “the grave economic, social and political challenges that India continues to face”, emphasising that crores were struggling with soaring prices and record unemployment while the government was allowing the concentration of wealth in a few chosen hands.
“The deliberate subversion of, and attack on, constitutional institutions continues. The premeditated attempt that is under way to de-legitimise the judiciary and orchestrate a confrontation between the executive and the judiciary is particularly alarming,” the steering committee said in a statement.
“The government continues its silence on Chinese incursions on the border and the change in status quo on the LAC, even as credible reports indicate increased deployment of Chinese troops and weaponry.”
The statement accused the Prime Minister of continuing to “deny, distract and divide” through “inflammatory rhetoric”.