Cornering the Modi government on issues such as grave lapses in preventing Pathankot terror attack and fall in petroleum prices appear to be priority agenda for the Congress leadership instead of the organisational reshuffle.
At least two senior Congress leaders said party president Sonia Gandhi may convene a meeting of the working committee or summon top leaders for discussions to chart the party strategy to take these key issues to the people ahead of the elections to five state Assemblies scheduled for this year.
“A decision in this regard may be taken in a day or two,” a senior leader said on Monday as vice president Rahul Gandhi began consultations with party leaders on organisational matters on his return from a two-week Europe visit.
“Organisational elections and reshuffle can happen later. There are important issues that we need to address,” a leader said.
Senior leaders Shakeel Ahmed, Captain Amarinder Singh, Gurudas Kamat, Mohan Prakash, P C Chacko, Ambika Soni among others held separate meetings with Rahul and Sonia to discuss organisational matters. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also met the Congress president.
At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi accused the Modi government of “making huge profits at the cost of ordinary citizens.”
“The price of crude was $108.05 per barrel on May 26, 2014 when Modi took over as the prime minister, while on January 8, 2016 crude price for the Indian basket was $30.02 per barrel,” Singhvi said.
He said the international crude prices have declined by 72 per cent since the NDA government came to power but the same was not reflected in the rates at which diesel and petrol was being sold to the common man.
