Congress flag.
Credit: PTI Photo
The newly constituted Congress Working Committee will meet for the first time in poll-bound Telangana’s Hyderabad on September 16 and 17 followed by a public rally where five guarantees for the state will be unveiled.
Sources said the Congress is also planning to host I.N.D.I.A leaders in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal for a meeting and the bloc’s first public rally in the first half of October, following a decision taken by the leaders at a meeting in Mumbai last week.
Announcing the CWC schedule, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said the first meeting of the new CWC nominated by party president Mallikarjun Kharge will meet on September 16 in which general members, permanent invitees and special invitees will attend.
The next day, he told a press conference, that an extended CWC will be convened in which state presidents, state Legislature Party leaders and Parliamentary Party office bearers have been invited. Kharge constituted the CWC on August 20 with 39 general members, 32 permanent invitees and 13 special invitees.
Following the extended CWC meeting, the party will organise a “massive public rally” near Hyderabad which Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi among others will attend.
In the public rally, the Congress will announce its five guarantees for poll-bound Telangana as it did successfully in Karnataka on September 17, the day on which Indian armed forces took control of the princely state of Hyderabad in 1948. A charge sheet against the government will also be released on this day.
After the rally, Kharge will flag off a cavalcade of CWC members, state presidents and CLP leaders who will visit 119 seats for a night stay on September 17 followed by party programmes the next day.
On September 18, these leaders will attend workers' meetings and door-to-door distribution of five guarantees and charge sheet against the BRS government. Leaders will also have community lunches with influencers while in the evening they will be part of ‘Bharat Jodo’ marches to Gandhi, Ambedkar and Komaram Bheem statues in their localities.
The rally may also see the participation of Y S Sharmila, whose YSR Telangana Party is likely to merge with Congress. When asked about Sharmila’s presence in the rally and possible merger, Venugopal said, “She had a good meeting with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. You wait and see.”
Congress has chosen Hyderabad as its venue for the CWC meeting and subsequent events coinciding with the anniversary of Hyderabad’s annexation with India with an eye on the election and to send a signal to its opponents.