New Delhi: The Congress has decided to hold the first meeting of its reconstituted working committee on 16 September in Hyderabad, indicating the party’s intentions to bolster its preparations for the Telangana assembly elections, due to be held in November-December.
This will be followed by an extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting the next day — which also happens to be Telangana National Integration Day — and will include chiefs of state units and Legislature party leaders (CLPs).
The Congress will also be holding a mega rally on 17 September where the party will announce its five poll guarantees for the state. Senior leaders and CWC members will be visiting each assembly constituency on 17 and 18 September, where programmes will be held throughout the two days.
Making the announcement about the events, Congress general secretary, organisation, K.C. Venugopal Monday said: “Along with CWC members, PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) presidents, CLP leaders, and parliamentary party office bearers will also attend this extended working committee meeting.”
The party, once the principal challenger to chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the state, had been laying low since the last election and seemed to be ceding the opposition space to the BJP. After its victory in Karnataka, though, the Congress has renewed efforts to regain lost ground in Telangana even as the BJP seems to reportedly be losing momentum.
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Congress’s countdown
After being a distant second in the 2018 assembly polls, winning 19 out of 119 seats, the Congress climbed down to number three in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning three seats, one less than the BJP’s tally.
In 2020, the Congress was pushed to the fourth position during the Hyderabad municipal polls where, in a turf war, BJP jumped ahead. Prior to this, the BJP had negligible presence here.
At the time, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) fell short of the halfway mark. followed by the BJP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). The BJP further gained strength at the cost of the Congress’s defections and disunity.
In fact, the 2022 Munugode bypoll — necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy defected to the BJP — which was seen as a “semi-final” before the upcoming assembly elections, turned out to be a damp squib for the party.
The TRS won the bypoll, the BJP candidate came second and the Congress trailed far behind.
However, since the party’s victory in Karnataka, the Congress has gained momentum while the BJP is losing steam amid factionalism in its state unit, show media reports.
Both the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi have held major rallies in the state in July and August, upping their attack against the BRS, calling it the BJP’s “B-team”.
In the month of June, the party saw as many as 35 BRS leaders joining the party, which political analysts termed as a “clear shift” in state politics.
Now, the Congress, like it did in Karnataka, is all set to announce its five poll guarantees for Telangana.
On 18 September, said Venugopal, party leaders will participate in a workers’ meeting, or Karyakarta Sabha, in the morning, followed by door-to-door distribution of “five guarantees” and a “chargesheet” against the BRS government. Later in the day, a community lunch will be held with “influencers” and there will be a ‘Bharat Jodo March’ to the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar or Komaram Bheem.
Speaking about the possibility of Y.S. Sharmila, younger sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, joining the Congress party, Venugopal said that she had a “very cordial, good meeting” with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul earlier. “Rest, you’ll have to wait and see.”
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)