CWC meeting in Belagavi: Congress begins deliberations on 2025 roadmap, vows to protect Mahatma Gandhi's legacy

New Delhi: Congress is turning into aggressive mode in 2025 with a politically loaded focus on Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi and from where its principal rival Narendra Modi comes from, as it heads to an organisational revamp that could see an emphasis on district-centric leadership and election management, sources said on Friday.

After a meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee in Karnataka’ Belagavi, sources said the leadership is now clear about the kind of turn the party needs to take, especially on organisational and ideological front. They said the Preamble of the Constitution will undoubtedly be the ideological guide for the party.

Choosing Gujarat where the Congress has not been in power since 1995 to host the AICC Session in April this year, sources said the party is placing the state at the centre of its changes. The symbolism is also not lost as Mahatma was born there and its foremost political rival Narendra Modi comes from. “What more messaging do you need?” asked a senior leader.

The party’s focus will be on the Mahatma and B R Ambedkar as it has designed a 13-month-long agitation programme from Friday. While the first phase ends in Mhow on January 26 next year, sources said the second phase starts on the same day from where the roadmap for organisational changes start.

The organisational model could see a change while there would also be an emphasis on election management, sources said. “The AICC Session in Gujarat will be the first step,” a senior leader said, adding that the resolution adopted at the CWC gives ample messages for the cadre on the ideological direction the party is taking.

The leader pointed to the party’s direct attack on “judiciary, the Election Commission and media” for being politicised “under pressure” and said it is not shying away from taking positions at this juncture. The party is also looking at symbolism.

From Mhow, the birthplace of Ambedkar, where it ends the ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ campaign, its next major stop would be “Mahatma Gandhi’s Gujarat”. The leader said Congress had got a new lease of life in the 1924 Belgaum Session and 100 years later, the party had gone back to the same place for rejuvenation.