The Congress has decided to work on a strategy for the Opposition-ruled states and the election-going states at a time when Team Anna and the Opposition parties have come together to exploit the corruption issue.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked partymen to gear up to meet the political challenge. While about half-a-dozen states are going to polls next year, Opposition parties are in power in over 12 states. These are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura.
This issue was said to have discussed in a meeting of the Congress general secretaries and the CWC members in-charge of different states held here on Saturday evening.
The meeting saw Mr Gandhi underlining the need for implementation of the action plan unveiled by party chief Sonia Gandhi at the party plenary at Burari in December. Mrs Gandhi had given a clarion call to confront corruption head on and had come out with an action plan for bringing transparency in governance. This was the first meeting of the party general secretaries after Mrs Gandhi’s return from the US after a surgery from which she is said to have recovered well.
AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said the meeting decided all state in-charges will send a report to Mrs Gandhi on the work done in their states in her absence and the report will carry details of whatever they implemented of the action plan suggested at Burari. “The meeting discussed what programmes could be taken up in various states keeping in mind the current political situation there,” he said. The meeting began with members expressing happiness at Mrs Gandhi’s recovery and her return, after which all in-charges discussed the initiatives taken by them in their jurisdictions.
Barring AICC general secretary Vilas Muttemwar and CWC member Shakeel Ahmed, all other office-bearers were present in the meeting.
Asked what role Mrs Gandhi is now playing in the party affairs after returning from abroad, Mr Dwivedi reminded that the Congress president, immediately after coming here, took personal care to thank all those who had sent her well wishes when she was in the hospital.
“She had arrived early in the morning and immediately expressed her condolence to the victims of the Delhi blast and the same evening also announced the name of a candidate for a bypoll in Karnataka. Her actions on the first day suggest that she has already started working but it is natural that doctors will advise anybody a rest for some days after the surgery,” he said.