By news section
Raipur: Former president of the Congress party Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did not attend the steering committee meeting of the Congress party in Chhattisgarh today (February 24). In this meeting, important decisions will be taken regarding the election of the Congress Working Committee.
The Gandhi family boycotted the meeting because they wanted the newly elected president of the Congress, Mallikarjuna Kharge, to act independently and not have any influence on the decisions. However, informed sources also said that they will attend the All India Congress Conference to be held in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
Successive electoral defeats led to setbacks for the party from the Congress party leadership. Sonia Gandhi resigned. This was followed by the election for the post of party leader. 80-year-old Mallikarjuna Kharge was elected as the leader of the Congress party in the October 2022 elections. In the elections held after 22 years in the Congress party, Kharge was elected as the party president with 84 percent votes. With this, after 24 years, he was elected as a leader who did not belong to the Gandhi family.
Kharge was portrayed as a Gandhi family loyalist during the party elections itself. At this stage, Rahul Gandhi has completed the India Unity Yatra by traveling across India. This pilgrimage has become a symbol of the current party. In this situation it is impossible to make it clear that Kharge is the supreme decision-maker of the party. A senior member of the party said that Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka will not attend the steering committee meeting as their presence may give wrong direction to the party.
The session in Raipur will be the 85th steering committee session of the Congress. It will also be the first meeting of the steering committee outside Delhi since the last one held in Hyderabad in 2005. In this three-day meeting, important decisions will be taken regarding making plans for the 2024 parliamentary elections, uniting other opposition parties and forming an electoral alliance against the BJP. 15,000 executives from across the country have come to participate.
After the steering committee meeting, the next committee will meet at 4 pm to discuss the 6 resolutions. Feb. These resolutions will be discussed in a series of meetings on 25th and 26th. Then on the afternoon of 26th, the meeting will conclude with the final speech by Congress Mallikarjuna Kharge. A rally will also be held after that.