CWC meet: Congress ‘disappointed’ with election outcome; takes heart from vote share increase

Close on the heels of its failure to defeat the BJP in the Hindi heartland states in the recent Assembly elections, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) met on Thursday to discuss the latest poll debacle and also lay out the roadmap for the party's preparation for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held after a few months.

Addressing the media, after a nearly four-long meeting of the CWC chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC General Secretary K. C. Venugopal said the general mood of the committee was to sincerely and genuinely evaluate the results of the Assembly elections. The General Secretaries and AICC in charges of the states briefed the CWC about the poll outcome.

Venugopal said while the defeat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh was disappointing, the party takes heart in the fact that its vote percentage is intact and it can make a comeback in the LS polls. He also said that the victory in Telangana is remarkable, considering that only a year ago, the Congress was in third position in the state and its candidates had lost their deposit in the by-elections.

“We are going to focus fully on the Parliament elections. The Congress president has declared that the candidates for the Lok Sabha elections will be decided very soon without any delay,” Venugopal said.

It was decided at the CWC that the party's manifesto committee will be declared in the next one or two days, and the screening committee to decide on candidates for the LS elections will be set up in December itself.

Venugopal informed that the Congress has undertaken meetings to review the poll preparation in 23 states already, and the process for the remaining states will be completed soon. “We will organise state level workers' conventions in the states January onwards. The Congress president and other leaders will participate in it...the party will now go completely into election mode without any delay,” he said.

The Congress will sound the poll bugle for the LS elections with a rally in Nagpur on December 28, which is the party's foundation day. The public meeting will be called 'Hain Taiyyar Hum Rally'. “All senior leaders of the party will attend the rally. A minimum of five to ten lakh people will participate in the rally,” Venugopal said.

The CWC also passed a resolution expressing “its firmest resolve to be fully prepared at the earliest to fight the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections both as a party in its own right and also as a member of the INDIA group.”

It also said it reiterates the determination of the Congress to make the INDIA group an effective bulwark and force against the BJP and its allies.

The CWC meeting also saw Kharge broach the topic of part two of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and put it on the table for discussion. He told the panel that he was getting appeals from party workers and leaders that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi should launch an east to west Bharat Jodo Yatra soon.

Venugopal said all CWC members urged Rahul to launch the second edition of his yatra, and a decision regarding it would be taken soon.

Asked about the difficulties in forming alliances in certain states such as Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal, Venugopal said the Congress has already formed a National Alliance Committee which will on an urgent basis seek the views of the state units and after that discussions will be held with the INDIA allies.

Regarding the invitation extended to Kharge and former party chief Sonia Gandhi to attend the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January, Venugopal confirmed the invite but did not say anything more. “They invited us, we are thankful for that,” he said.

The CWC condemned the suspension of INDIA MPs from both houses of Parliament. “The suspension was done also to ensure that the Opposition was not present to challenge the Modi government as it bulldozed three draconian criminal justice laws through,” the CWC resolution said.