Congress' CWC in Belagavi: Party to decide 2025 action plan, take up Ambedkar 'insult' issue

The meeting of around 200 leaders has been christened the 'Nav Satyagraha Baithak' and would be followed by a 'Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan' rally on Friday, which will also see the attendance of party MPs and other Congress functionaries in the Karnataka town.

New Delhi: The extended Congress Working Committee (WCC) meeting in Belagavi on Thursday—commemorating the 100th anniversary of Belgaum Session presided over by Mahatma Gandhi—will decide on an action plan for the party for 2025

The meeting of around 200 leaders has been christened the 'Nav Satyagraha Baithak' and will be followed by a 'Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan' rally on Friday, which will also see the attendance of party MPs and other Congress functionaries in the Karnataka town.

At the meeting being held at the same venue where the Mahatma presided over the session 100 years ago, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said, the party would also deliberate on the "insult" to Dalit icon B R Ambedkar by Home Minister Amit Shah. The venue has been called 'Mahatma Gandhi Nagar'.

"The significance this time is that Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also from Karnataka and rose from the grassroots, is presiding over the CWC meeting to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi presiding over an AICC session," he said.

Two resolutions would be adopted by the CWC, which includes its stand on the political and economic situation in the country. The party would identify the critical challenges faced by the country under the BJP, which includes growing economic inequality, erosion of democracy and attack on the Constitution, Venugopal said.

Another resolution is likely on the significance of the session in Belagavi, which comes exactly 100 years after Mahatma Gandhi presided over a session of the Congress for the first and last time.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said it was in Belagavi only, the Congress Seva Dal was set up during that period under the chairmanship of Jawaharlal Nehru. He also recalled that the Mahatma retained Nehru as a General Secretary and the latter had later in his book recalled that his long innings in politics started with the Karnataka town.

Besides CWC members, Venugopal said permanent and special invitees to the CWC, Central Election Committee members, state presidents, legislature party leaders, Parliamentary party office bearers and former Chief Ministers will attend the meeting, which would start at 2:30 pm on Thursday. He said the CWC would discuss the programmes for the next one year.

Asked whether the organisation would see a revamp at the CWC meeting, he said the previous meeting had decided that the organisational restructuring would happen in 2025.

To a question, he said the Congress has implemented four of the seven major decisions taken at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir.