Congress holds crucial UP meeting to firm up plans for 2024 Lok Sabha polls

New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with top party functionaries from Uttar Pradesh, brainstormed at a crucial meeting here on Monday to firm up plans for the state for the 2024 polls.

Sources said the ground situation of the party's organisation, seat sharing with allies and some other poll-related issues were discussed. The meeting comes a day before the opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc's meeting in the national capital.

In a post in Hindi on X after the meeting, Kharge said, "For the strength of the organisation and the party in Uttar Pradesh, an important meeting was held with senior leaders. In the coming Lok Sabha elections, we have to take the voices of the poor, farmers, women and youth to every home of Uttar Pradesh. Also, progressive and democratic forces have to be united … public issues are foremost for us. We will continue to expose the anti-people policies of the BJP on the ground," he added.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ajay Rai, Priyanka Gandhi -- the party's Uttar Pradesh in-charge -- and senior leaders Pramod Tiwari, Rajiv Shukla and Salman Khurshid, among others, participated in the meeting at the AICC headquarters.

The Congress faced a crushing defeat in the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, bagging only two seats.

A few months ago, the party appointed Rai as the new president of its Uttar Pradesh unit.