Congress Plants Flag in BJP Heartland: Mega Ahmedabad Convention Signals Gujarat Ambitions

Ahmedabad/New Delhi: This year marks the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's Congress presidency and also the 150th birth anniversary of the country's first Home Minister Sardar Patel. Therefore, the Congress planned to organize this historic convention in Gujarat. This is not Modi-Shah's Gujarat, this is Gandhi and Patel's Gujarat. Both the great heroes are icons of our country. This was said by Pawan Khera, head of the media department of the Congress. While giving information about the convention to the media, Congress's organization general secretary KC Venugopal said that the tag line of this session to be held on Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on 8 and 9 April has been kept as - 'Nyay Path... Sankalp, Samarpan and Sangharsh'. Venugopal gave this information on Friday evening after the completion of the third phase of the meeting of the District Presidents of Congress.

Congress convention on the second day

On April 8, an extended meeting of the CWC, the highest policy making unit of the Congress, will be held at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial. Permanent members of the CWC, special invitees, CMs and Deputy CMs of all states, state presidents, former CMs will participate in it. The total number of participants in this will be 169, while the Congress convention will be held on the next day, where all the officials of the Congress, important officials of the frontal organization, heads of all departments and 1727 AICC members will participate. Congress has formed several committees to finalize the preparations for the convention.

Third phase of meeting of District Presidents

In order to strengthen the organization on the ground, Congress has started an exercise to empower the District Presidents. In the same sequence, Friday was the third phase of the meeting of District Presidents with the top leadership of Congress. A total of 862 District Presidents participated in the three meetings. 255 District Presidents participated in the first phase, 305 in the second and 302 in the third. On Friday, District Presidents of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh participated. It is interesting that states like Haryana and Odisha could not participate in it, because the appointment of District Presidents has not been done there yet. Although in Odisha, the state unit was dissolved after the general elections and assembly elections, which has not been formed yet, but Haryana is a unique case in itself, where District Presidents have not been appointed for the last 13 years. A source associated with the party organization said that when the District Presidents of these two states are appointed, then a meeting will be held there.

The gist will be presented in the meeting

Venugopal said that the meeting of district presidents held in three phases was very meaningful and important. The gist of the meeting held just before the session will be presented in the session.

Pawan Khera said that a total of 14-15 hours of discussion took place during this period. Apart from the district presidents, the state presidents and in-charges of the respective states were also present in the third meeting. In the meeting, the district presidents were told how to run a campaign on media and social media regarding their issues. Apart from this, they were also told about the management of Congress assets and fund management across the country.

Such an exercise was done after 20 years

Venugopal said that in the meeting, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi not only put forth their views, but also listened to the views of some elected representatives from among the district presidents, where along with giving their opinion about the organization and frontal organization, they also tried to tell what kind of changes they want in the party in the coming time. On the other hand, KC Venugopal said that after almost 20 years, such an exercise has been done in the party where communication has been done with the district presidents. However, he stressed that in the coming time, we will create such a system in the party where the central leadership will have regular communication with these district presidents. The purpose of this exercise will be to let us know the exact situation of our party on the ground. Its purpose is to strengthen the Congress organization on the ground, in which emphasis has been laid on both the structure and working system of the Congress organization.