Amid speculation whether or not Rahul Gandhi would take over as Congress President on November 19, the 100th birth anniversary of his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Congress vice-president will be presiding over a meeting of party general secretaries and State in-charges on Monday.
Congress sources say the agenda for the meeting is to discuss the plans for the birth centenary of Indira Gandhi.
“There is a committee that is headed by A.K. Antony ji, Moti Lal Vora ji and others. They are supposed to plan the year-long celebrations and perhaps we will discuss that on Monday,” said a general secretary.
But coming barely a week before the November 8 anniversary of demonetisation, the meeting could also discuss the party’s plan to mark the first anniversary of the note ban.
Black day
The Congress, along with other Opposition parties, has announced to observe November 8 as a ‘black day’.
In a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue, on Thursday, while speaking at an annual general meeting of an industry body, Mr. Gandhi had said, “In a couple of weeks from now we will observe the death anniversary of the 500 and 1,000 rupee note. November the 8th is the barsi of ‘notebandi’ — when Shri Narendra Modi personally wiped out 86% of the currency in circulation overnight.”
Apart from the meeting’s agenda, the meeting is symbolic as expectations within the Congress was for Mr. Gandhi to formally take over as the party president soon after Diwali.
But even after 10 days, there are still no signs of Mr. Gandhi taking over.
