By – Prakarsh Kastwar
Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, the chief ministers of every state where the Congress is in power, and other top party officials will discuss a number of topics with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here on Monday will be dominated by a caste census and poll strategy, with Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram due to be announced soon.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers of all Congress-ruled states, and top party brass will hold extensive discussions on election preparations and narratives across the poll-bound states, as well as the party’s firm pitch for a nationwide caste census and its implications.’
What to anticipate from the CWC match : Key points
- Concerns have been raised inside the Congress on how the party has expressed its demand for the caste census in light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent accusation that the grand old party is aiming to stoke division among Hindus by promoting the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
- Rahul Gandhi’s phrase “jitni abaadi, utna haq” (rights proportionate to population), according to Congress spokesperson and regular CWC member Abhishek Singhvi, leads to a support of majoritarianism. Although Singhvi promptly removed his contentious post on X after the Congress rejected his comments, some party members are still concerned about how the politically-charged push for the caste census was expressed.
- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is currently in power at the federal level, has increased its criticism of the Congress, claiming that the party has never supported a caste census because the late Rajiv Gandhi opposed the Mandal Commission in Parliament. In order to oppose the Hindutva agenda of the BJP, the Congress has chosen a principled stance by pushing for the caste census.
- Rajasthan, which is governed by the Congress party, issued orders on Saturday to conduct a similar exercise after Bihar disclosed the results of a caste census conducted in the state. The Congress has declared that, if re-elected to power in Chhattisgarh, it will conduct a caste census. Karnataka, which is governed by the Congress party, has already announced the census and will probably release the findings later this year.
- Establishing the party’s approach in the five states with close elections is on the agenda for Monday’s CWC meeting. In addition to attempting to unseat the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana, and Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram, the Congress wants to keep its administrations in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
- With Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) being the most recent in a string of arrests in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, the CWC meeting comes at a time when several opposition leaders are coming under fire from government authorities. The chairman of the Congress’ farmers wing, Sukhpal Khaira, was arrested most recently in a drug-related case, and the party has decried Singh’s detention while also drawing attention to similar actions taken against its officials in Punjab by the AAP government there.
- Just over three weeks have passed since the inaugural meeting of the newly-constituted CWC, which was held in Hyderabad on September 16 in order to develop a plan for the Assembly elections in the five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Along with the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders in the five election-bound states, the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh will attend the CWC meeting. There are 39 regular members, 32 permanent invitees, and 13 special invitees in the CWC, including 15 women and a number of fresh faces.