Starting the proceedings for the two-day plenary session, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday chaired a meeting of top leaders to give final shape to the draft resolutions that will outline the party’s political road map.
The plenary session will set the tone for the Congress’ poll strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections in key States like Karnataka and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh among others.
The plenary will adopt four resolutions, political, economic, foreign affairs and a resolution on agriculture, employment and alleviating poverty, over the next two days.
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Day one will see the adoption of the political resolution and the one on agriculture and employment.
Top leaders including former Prime Minister Dr/ Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, as members of a Subject Committee, debated these issues.
The party will highlight its vision on each of these issues and compare it with the present situation. More than 60 members gave suggestions that were unanimously adopted.
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“The Congress president has directed that the opinion of the youth delegates must be taken and reflect in the direction the party takes,” said Randeep Surjewala, Congress’ communication chief.
The plenary session, that takes place every five years, determines the direction and vision that the Congress would seek to take in the next five years.
To be held under Rahul Gandhi’s stewardship for the first time, the Congress seeks to make the ordinary worker the focus of the party. “This plenary session will be very different from other sessions as the Congress president is seeking to accord preference to workers than leaders. One can say this session will see the beginning of a new tradition,” said Mr. Surjewala.
Mr. Gandhi will also have to put in place a new Central Working Committee but it wasn’t clear if that would happen during the session or at a later date.
On Saturday morning, the Congress president will start the deliberations with his opening speech in which he will outline the challenges the party faces and how it plans to address them.