After cementing its pivotal role in anti-BJP national politics by securing 99 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the top leadership of Congress is on Saturday doing crucial deliberations on poll results to chalk out its future strategy at a meeting of the party’s working committee. The extended meeting of the party’s top decision-making body — the Congress Working Committee (CWC) — is underway at Hotel Ashok in New Delhi.
The Congress’ top brass, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, besides other leaders are participating in the deliberations.
The party MPs will elect the new Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson at this meeting. Sonia Gandhi is likely to be re-elected as CPP Chairperson.
“The 2024 elections have been a moral defeat for Narendra Modi and the BJP while being a morale booster for the Indian National Congress and the INDIA Janbandhan. The extended Congress Working Committee is meeting at 11 am today and the Congress Parliamentary Party will meet at 5.30 pm,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
The party is also likely to deliberate on the name for the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. This will be the first time that the Congress, since its ouster from power in 2014, will get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
It failed to get the position in the past 10 years as its tally was below the requisite 10 per cent of total seats in the House, both in 2014 and 2019.
A section within the party strongly feels that former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi should take over as leader of the party and opposition in the Lok Sabha.
When asked if Rahul Gandhi is ready to take charge as LoP in Lok Sabha, Congress leader Veerappa Moily said, “He has to take charge of the LoP. After all, the people want him there. INDIA team and Congress people also want him there.”
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also echoed Moily’s sentiments and said, “I am very much in favour. It’s a very important proposal but he has to decide in the end.”
Rahul Gandhi won both the Wayanad and Rae Bareli seats in the elections and will have to decide within 14 days which seat he will hold and which he will vacate. He will have to make a decision before the oath-taking ceremony, likely to take place next week.
Senior party leaders and members of the CWC, along with Congress Legislature Party leaders and Pradesh Congress Committee presidents from various states, will also analyse the party’s performance and suggest measures to strengthen the organisation.
Talking about the agenda of the meeting, Veerappa Moily said, “We need to discuss many things – the manner in which the Congress and also INDIA scored a very high percentage of votes and also the seats.”
“Of course, we should have won and captured the power and Rahul Gandhi should have become the Prime Minister of this country. But we missed it. But now, Narendra Modi is not that great, he has been totally pulled down in terms of popularity, in terms of vote share. I think we are marching forward, and if not today, tomorrow the Congress – under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi – has to come back,” he added.
With inputs from News18
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