Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge chaired a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at the party headquarters at Indira Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday.
Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and other senior leaders were present at the meeting, which was called to deliberate on the current political situation and the party's action plan against the government after it replaced the MGNREGA with the new VB-G RAM G law.
Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy were also in attendance.
Other senior leaders who attended the key meeting included Harish Rawat, former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, and party MPs Shashi Tharoor, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Rajeev Shukla.
This was the first CWC meeting after the Bihar assembly elections, where the party performed poorly, winning only six seats. The meeting also comes ahead of next year's assembly polls in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.
Tharoor had recently made headlines after skipping key Congress meetings and praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at the Ramnath Goenka Lecture.
He had skipped the party’s 'Vote Chor Gaddi Chhod' rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi due to his engagement abroad, as well as a meeting of Congress Lok Sabha MPs chaired by Rahul Gandhi.
Siddaramaiah’s attendance at the meeting comes amid his intense power struggle with his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, in the state. According to reports, Shivakumar was not invited to the meeting.
The party is expected to finalize its agitational plan against the government over the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.
The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which replaces the UPA-era MGNREGA, was passed in Parliament during the recently concluded Winter session, and President Droupadi Murmu has already given her assent to it.
Opposition parties have strongly objected to the new law, claiming it is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi as his name has been removed.