New Delhi: The Congress is all set to stage a show of strength on its foundation day on December 28 by holding a mega rally at Nagpur where former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are expected to challenge the BJP and declare the grand old party's readiness for the 2024 political fight.
The entire Congress Working Committee, several state unit chiefs and CLP leaders will attend the rally where party chief Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to list the failures of the Narendra Modi government and present the Congress as a national alternative to the BJP.
Nagpur in Maharashtra was chosen as the venue for the foundation day rally as it is central to the Vidarbha region which has traditionally supported the Congress and also because the city houses the national headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BJP's ideological mentor.
"We will have to challenge the BJP. We will have to say that the Congress is fighting for national integration and if someone tries to use religion for political gains and divides society, it will not be tolerated. The Congress will have to articulate its message of social justice versus BJP's crony capitalism and tell the country it is ready for the big battle,” senior Mumbai Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam told ETV Bharat.
According to Nirupam, the Congress needs to counter the BJP's propaganda that the Modi government is set for a third term win in 2024.
"The Congress needs to counter the BJP's narrative that the ruling party is winning 400/543 seats in 2024. The BJP leaders are saying this in public and soon some surveys are likely to be published projecting a similar picture. This will influence the voters' mind that the BJP is winning but whether the party is actually winning or not, nobody knows. We will have to remind the voters that Indian politics changes every 10 years like it did in 2014," he said.
The former MP also listed some challenges for the party. "Merely saying that we need to save democracy or that we will reduce government debt will not do. We will have to list specifics like we will do to reduce price rise, give jobs to youth and secure small businesses. That will connect with common people. We will have to play with words and redesign our political vocabulary in sync with the times. I think that is still missing," he said.
According to party insiders, the Nagpur rally, for which the Congress managers are trying to arrange a crowd of between five to 20 lakh people, is also an attempt to boost the morale of the party workers across the country, who have been lying low since the recent poll defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
"The party workers are demoralised after the poll loss in three states. We need to show that we are not sitting at home and are in fact ready for the 2024 battle. We need to give the workers an action plan for 2024 polls," a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary said.
To ensure the success of the December 28 rally, Mallikarjun Kharge has deployed eight senior AICC functionaries as coordinators for a smooth operation while most of the groundwork is being done by the Maharashtra unit specially under the supervision of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.
"This is a big show. We need to be sure of logistics and people mobilisation. A lot of coordination work is needed for an event this size," rally coordinator BM Sandeep Kumar said.
"We are on the verge of the Lok Sabha polls. Hence the Nagpur rally will mark the beginning of sorts of our national poll campaign. We will highlight the failures of the Modi government. We will tell people that we are ready to provide jobs and reduce prices for them. We will put out before the people that the BJP does not want any opposition in Parliament and that is why they expelled over 145 MPs during the winter session,” another rally coordinator Chetan Chauhan said.
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