New Delhi: Congress has lined up a number of big meetings and other events to mourn the passing away of former Prime Minister late Manmohan Singh till January 3, 2025, and planning for the year-long protests against the NDA government will start only after January 4. According to party insiders, the protests against the Centre’s policies will be carried out across the country from Jan 26, 2025, till Jan 26, 2026. The party will also focus on revamping its organisation as envisaged in the 2022 Udaipur Declaration.
Four of the seven points decided in the Udaipur Declaration have been implemented by the Congress and the remaining three will be addressed in 2025, the party insiders said.
As for the nationwide protests, the agitations will have to be remodelled on the lines of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that were taken out by Rahul Gandhi in 2022 and the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in 2023 to prepare the Congress to take on the Modi government in the 2024 national elections.
The party insiders said the Congress needed to go to the villages to broad-base its protests and give chance to new faces to strengthen party units which will implement the plans. “As announced, the mourning period will be till January 3, 2025. So, any further movement on the forthcoming plans will take place only after January 4. But the Congress will certainly be on the roads to counter the NDA all through the next year,” AICC functionary BM Sandeep told ETV Bharat.
“The organisation will be a top priority. For a national party, a strong organisation is important as it helps in winning elections which bring the party to power and allow the leadership to implement its policies and programs,” he said.
According to party insiders, organisational changes had been brought about over the past decade when the Modi government came to power in 2014 from time to time but there was a need now to give chances to new faces.
“Those who got a chance to work in the organisation can be assessed but there are capable persons in the party who never got a chance to serve the organisation. It is not difficult to find such people,” said Sandeep, who has been AICC secretary for a decade and has worked in various states.
The broad idea of nationwide protests had been firmed up during the key extended Congress Working Committee meeting held at Belagavi in Karnataka on Dec 26 where Mahatma Gandhi had become party president on the same date 100 years ago. However, the expression of the party’s resolve through the ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ mega rally at the same place on December 27 had to be cancelled due to the passing away of the former Prime Minister on December 26 night.
“The slogan for the rally was chosen very carefully to reiterate the party’s commitment to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, who drafted the Constitution and the need to protect constitutional values and institutions today. Our workers and leaders from top to bottom will walk across villages and take the party’s message to the people. The Bharat Jodo Yatras were the party’s biggest public outreach programmes so far and generated a good response from the people. Hence, the New Year’s efforts will have to be equally strong. The Congress does not hanker for power but works for the people whether in power or not. Today the issues affecting the people are being sidelined,” AICC secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Chandan Yadav told ETV Bharat.
