New Delhi: The Congress on Monday set in motion processes to prepare for its big event- the 85th Plenary Session- that will take place at Raipur from February 24 to 26. The drafting committee for the Plenary Session, headed by veteran Jairam Ramesh - will hold its first meeting on February 14 to chalk out a plan for the various resolutions as well as the brainstorming meetings that will take place during the get-together.
The congregation is significant as the key political and economic resolutions, which would be like a mini-manifesto for the 2024 national elections, would be passed during the three-day mega conclave. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has named former union minister M Veerappa Moily and former finance minister P Chidambaram as heads of the sub-groups on political and economic resolutions.
According to party insiders, the two veterans are holding consultations with the other group members over the points to be included in the political and economic resolution drafts. “I cannot talk about it now. The political resolution draft is being prepared,” Moily told ETV Bharat. The drafting committee is important as it proposes various resolutions at the Plenary Session.
The respective sub-groups then debate the drafts threadbare before the resolutions are put to voice vote at the meeting. The other resolutions that will be debated and passed at the meeting related to international affairs, social justice and empowerment, farmers and agriculture and youth, education, and employment.
Former union minister Salman Khurshid heads the subgroup on international affairs, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda heads the subgroup on farmers, Mukul Wasnik heads the subgroup on social justice and Punjab unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Brar heads the subgroup on youth. Interestingly, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, who had contested the 2022 presidential elections against Mallikarjun Kharge, has been named as the convenor of the subgroup on international affairs.
According to party insiders, both Rahul Gandhi and Kharge have been articulating the party’s concerns over the prevailing political situation in the country as well as on the policies of the government. Hence, the political and the economic resolutions are likely to reflect the positions of both the former and the incumbent Congress chiefs who have been alleging the ruling BJP of playing divisive politics and have slammed the Centre for the growing economic disparities, social disharmony, centralization of politics and disregarding the Constitutional institutions.
Also read: Days ahead of Cong's plenary session, Tharoor meets party chief Mallikarjun Kharge
“The economic and political resolutions will talk about policy issues,” former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told ETV Bharat. For the party fresh from Rahul Gandhi's 4,000 km nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Plenary Session would give it another chance to showcase strength as around 15,000 party workers and leaders from across the country are expected to attend the three-day mega conclave.
The idea for the yatra had originated during a similar brainstorming session called the Chintan Shivir, which the party had organised at Udaipur in May 2022 to chalk out a road map for the 2024 national elections when the Congress hoped to take on the ruling BJP. As per party managers, the Plenary Session takes place after the successful completion of the party’s internal elections during which various PCC, AICC office bearers, besides the Congress president, is elected.
While over 9,000 PCC delegates from across the country had voted in the election of Kharge as the new party president last year, the various AICC delegates will endorse the veteran’s election during the Plenary Session as per the party constitution. Usually, an AICC delegate is elected for every eight PCC delegates. Through this calculation, the number of AICC delegates should be around 1,200. However, as the number of existing AICC delegates was longer, the party had urged the state units to prune the list accordingly.
Jairam Ramesh, who was named the AICC communications incharge after the Chintan Shivir last year, played a key role behind Rahul’s yatra and emerged as a powerful voice within the party system. Hence, he has made head of the drafting committee for the Plenary Session, said party insiders. Besides Ramesh, another veteran Digvijay Singh too will play a significant role in the drafting of the political resolution, the insiders said.
Kharge who has been displaying aggression against the BJP since taking over as the new party chief on October 26 last year is expected to set the tone for the Plenary Session and is likely to deliver a fiery speech at the opening and concluding session. Besides Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are also expected to address the gathering articulating their views. A host of other senior leaders including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would also get a chance to speak at the Plenary Session.
Though the Congress is preparing the ground for the 2024 national elections it is also focusing on the 9 assembly elections that will take place in 2023. In this light, the naming of Moily, who belongs to Karnataka, as the head of the political subgroup shows the Congress is trying to send a message to the voters of the southern state, which, it believes, the party has a fair chance of winning.
