New Delhi: The Congress will launch its nationwide “Save Constitution” yatra against the BJP from Ahmedabad in Gujarat where the grand old party will hold an AICC session on April 8 and 9. While the yatra will target the saffron party nationally, Congress will also use the occasion to launch its campaign for the 2027 Assembly elections in Gujarat.
After the Congress played a role in the defeat of AAP in the recent Delhi Assembly elections, the grand old party is likely to go solo in the 2027 Gujarat Assembly polls.
The two parties had contested the 2024 national elections in alliance with the Congress fighting on 24 Lok Sabha seats and the AAP contesting two Lok Sabha seats in the western state.
“There was no benefit to the Congress in contesting the national elections jointly with the AAP in Lok Sabha polls. We would like to go alone in the 2027 Assembly elections and regain lost ground,” Congress Working Committee member Jagdish Thakor told ETV Bharat.
According to party insiders, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who was party chief in 2017, had launched an aggressive campaign the same year, which saw the Congress come close to forming a government in Gujarat.
However, the Congress suffered a jolt and lost crucial seats in the 2022 Assembly elections when debutant AAP took away around 13 per cent votes of the grand old party.
“They indirectly helped the BJP,” said Thakor, a former Gujarat Congress chief.
According to AICC functionary Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, the AICC session in April will flag the Congress's commitment to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and will also be used to send a message to the state voters.
“It will signal our resolve to win the state. The BJP has been in power for long but it can be defeated in 2017. The Congress can do that on its own. The ground-level feedback is that the people in the state are fed up with the saffron party which has not done anything,” Ulaka told ETV Bharat.
According to the AICC functionary, the AICC session will also witness the grand old party making some key decisions as it focuses on rebuilding the organization across the country in 2025.
“Yes, some key decisions may be taken at the AICC session where delegates from across the country besides the entire top leadership will converge,” said Ulaka.
The yatra dubbed “Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan” was conceived during the recent CWC meeting held at Belagavi in Karnataka to commemorate the 10 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s presidency of the Congress. Besides Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress will also express its commitment to Dr BR Ambedkar, architect of the Indian Constitution through the proposed yatra.
“The CWC will also meet on April 8 and pass a resolution reaffirming our faith in the values of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Ambedkar and the Constitution. The BJP only pays lip service to all three. We have to fight the challenges posed by the anti-people policies of the Central government and chart out our future course of action,” said Thakor.
The AICC session will be attended by the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the entire CWC, all the AICC functionaries, all state unit chiefs and the three Chief Ministers from Karnataka K Siddaramaiah, Revanth Reddy from Telangana and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu from Himachal Pradesh.
Read more: Congress MLAs Continue 'Dharna' in Rajasthan Assembly Over Suspension of 6 MLAs
