New Delhi, August 20
In a major signal that the Congress was willing to play along with the larger opposition to defeat the BJP in the next General Elections, party chief Sonia Gandhi said on Friday that the time had come to rise above political compulsions to achieve the intimate goal of winning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Pledging that the Congress won’t be found wanting in this duty, Gandhi, addressing leaders of 19 like-minded parties, said, “Of course, the ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution. This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them.”
The Congress chief said the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence is indeed the most appropriate occasion for us to reaffirm “individual and collective resolve”.
“Let me say for its part, the Indian National Congress will not be found wanting,” she assured leaders including NCP’s Sharad Pawar, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, DMK chief MK Stalin, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray among others.
The virtual meeting, Gandhi symbolically organised on the birth anniversary of her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, saw the participation of 19 parties minus the SP, BSP, AAP, BJD.
Hailing the opposition unity in the recent Parliament session Gandhi said she hoped the momentum of opposition unity would last across future sessions too.
Blaming the washout of the Monsoon session on the government’s “obstinate and arrogant unwillingness to discuss and debate urgent issues of public importance including Pegasus snooping scandal and repeal of the three anti-farmer laws”, Gandhi said, “In spite of this, the session was marked by the determined unity that all Opposition parties demonstrated for over twenty days in both the houses. We functioned in a coordinated manner with daily discussions among our floor leaders.”
She said it was due to Opposition parties that the Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed to restore the long-standing rights of states to identify and notify OBCs.
“I am confident that this unity will be sustained in future sessions of Parliament as well. But the larger political battle has to be fought outside it,” she said at a time when leadership of the anti-BJP national front is seen as the biggest sticking point in the fight against the BJP.
Sonia’s signal that Congress won’t be found wanting is significant as it indicates flexibility on the leadership issue, with several opposition leaders already having suggested that Pawar should take over the UPA reins.
Mamata Banerjee has already exhibited national ambitions, and currently commands significant leverage in the opposition camp due to her recent victory over the BJP in Bengal.
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