Congress underlines need for united Opposition to take on NDA

The party announced at the Plenary Session that it will prepare a Vision Document for 2024

Warning that emergence of any third force will only provide an advantage to the BJP and NDA, Congress on Saturday underlined the need for a united Opposition to take on the NDA on common ideological grounds and promised to “go all out” to identify such secular regional forces ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress message came in its political resolution at the Plenary Session here and party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s presidential address when he spoke about the readiness for a “viable alternative” against the “anti-people and undemocratic” Modi government while insisting that his party can only provide “capable and decisive leadership” in such a fight.

The party announced that it will prepare a Vision Document for 2024 with a social security focus that replaces the current “regressive path of growth” with a “growth mantra” that has a “human touch” creating livelihoods and employment opportunities.

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Along with building opposition unity, the party is also looking to redefine itself with farm labourers, artisans, youth and women becoming its “sheet anchors” while aiming to “again emerge” as a mass-based and cadre-based vibrant party with an aim of “rebuilding a holistic Bharat, a Samrudh Bharat”.

The party’s political resolution “welcomed” the “big challenge” posed by the BJP, which has “shockingly” claimed that it will have “no competitors” in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, to the Congress and other parties as well as to the “democratic ethos of India”.

Acknowledging that the Assembly elections to nine states this year and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is “crucial” for “India’s future”, the party has identified the need for narrative building at a time it has lost the edge. It emphasised the need for “redefining political discourse by recapturing the centre space in the present polarised polity”.

“Unity of secular and socialist forces will be the hallmark of the future of the Congress. Congress should go all out to identify, mobilise and align like-minded secular forces. We should include secular regional forces who agree with our ideology. There is an urgent need for a united opposition to take on the NDA on common ideological grounds,” the resolution said.

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However, the resolution appeared to be critical of parties like Trinamool Congress, BRS and AAP, which have been playing hardball on Congress over Opposition leadership. Warning against creating a parallel grouping, the resolution minced no words, “emergence of any third force will provide an advantage to the BJP/NDA.”

The resolution was presented after Kharge in his presidential address spoke about how the party gave leadership to an alliance government with like-minded parties between 2004 and 2014 and that the Congress was “once again ready to forging a viable alternative by aligning with like-minded parties to defeat the anti-people and undemocratic” BJP government.

On taking the party forward, it said Congress will create a clear-cut role model and will catapult the party back to power both in states and at the centre. Interestingly, it also said the party will infuse “new blood” in leadership “without creating new fault lines”, in a clear signal that the party would like to blend youth with experience.

The resolution said the party will implement all the promises of Udaipur Chintan Shivir, especially those on organisation, in letter and spirit within an immediate time frame. “Congressmen and Congressmen should not think ‘who we are but what the situation warrants today’,” it said.