With the general elections dates out, the run up to the coveted supreme office of India, has officially started. All the parties, candidates and workers are awaiting the plan ahead from here.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is all set to roll out the party’s road map and formally start the race for the Lok Sabha elections at a key meeting in Gujarat on March 12.
Congress is high on energy and has chosen the ‘right’ state to talk about their road map. Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief Amit Shah.
They are expected to start the process on a high pitch of ‘Oust NDA (National Democratic Alliance)’. The move comes two days after the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha poll dates.
Sources suggest that Congress will cover critical issues of unemployment, farmers distress, price rise, Rafale jet fighter deal, alleged banks frauds involving fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Also Read: NewsMobile Morning Brief
Congress will also touch upon various alliances they have made in the different states.
“There are serious and very basic fundamental livelihood issues – there is farm distress, demonetisation; there is the issue of how badly GST has been implemented in order to destroy small and medium businesses. How MGNREGA programmes have been completely subverted,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi when asked about the CWC agenda.
The CWC will also endorse party chief Rahul Gandhi’s proposal of minimum guarantee income for the poor if his party is voted to power. After 1961, this will be the first CWC to be hosted by Gujarat in almost 60 years. It also marks the debut of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the party’s highest decision-making body, after she took up the position of party’s general secretary and incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
The meet will be followed by an election rally in Gandhinagar, which, apart from Rahul Gandhi, is expected to be attended by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, Priyanka Gandhi and the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states besides senior leaders.
The date also marks the 89th year since the launch of the historic Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi from the Sabarmati Ashram in 1930. The Congress plans to adopt resolutions related to prevailing political and security conditions in the country.
The CWC meeting was earlier scheduled for February 28 but was postponed because of the tensions between India and Pakistan due to the February 26 air strikes in Balakot, a strong JeM terrorist training camp in Pakistan. This was done in retaliation of the February 14 attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 security personnel.