Only Congress can be alternative to BJP

The three-day 85th Session of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) Plenary from February 24-26 in Raipur in Chhattisgarh will be a landmark session, in more ways than one. The essential focus during the AICC Plenary Session will be on crafting a credible strategy to convert the goodwill generated by the historic Bharat Jodo Yatra into creating a conducive political atmosphere in the country. This, in turn, would facilitate the coming together of the secular forces, in order to take on the BJP in the General Election in 2024.

The AICC Plenary assumes significance, against the backdrop of several State Assembly elections due this year and the General Election in 2024. This Plenary Session will provide the direction on how the Congress will approach the elections.

Focus now has to be on building a credible secular alliance to defeat the BJP. As a Pan-Indian party, the Congress has to necessarily be the fulcrum for an alliance of secular parties. Certainly, there will be a discussion on this issue in the AICC Plenary Session. The regional parties cannot provide an alternative platform to fight the BJP. The regional parties, owing to their basic regional character and limited reach, cannot provide a Pan-Indian platform, necessary to take on the BJP. Only the Congress has an alternative ideology and political programme.

Most of the regional parties have been with the BJP, at one point in time or the other. This gives the Congress the moral strength to provide a national alternative to the BJP.

The AICC Plenary Session assumes significance, in the wake of the Bharat Jodo Yatra undertaken by Rahul Gandhi from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Tagline for the AICC Plenary is Haath Se Haath Jodo.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has enthused the Congress cadres all across the country. The Congress men and women have been electrified. The Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Rahul Gandhi, has given a new direction to the Congress rank and file to go back and to reconnect with the people, by espousing their cause and giving voice to their concerns.

The Plenary Session will focus on issues that resonated during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Apart from the customary Political, Economic and Foreign Policy Resolutions, there will be resolutions on Price-Rise, Youth and Unemployment and Social Justice and Empowerment.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has been a huge success in mobilization of the masses. It brought focus on the hugely Polarization and Divisive Agenda of the BJP. Besides, it highlighted the plight of the common man fleeced by price-rise and unemployment. It has to become the starting point for the consolidation of secular forces.

Significantly, the AICC Plenary comes after an electoral contest for the post of Congress President. The Congress remains the only pre-eminent political party, where genuine election takes place, while most political parties go only by the process of nominating Party Presidents.

For the Congress, election to the post of Congress President is not something new. There was the epic battle between Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramaiah in 1939. Bose won the election and Mahatma Gandhi conceded that Pattabhi Sitaramaiah's defeat was his own defeat. So genuine was the process of election.

In 1997, Sitaram Kesari won as Congress President, defeating Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot. In 1999, Sonia Gandhi won as Congress President, defeating Jitender Prasada, in a straight contest. In 2022, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge won, defeating Shashi Tharoor. The Congress has a long history and a vibrant tradition of inner-party democracy, which is hardly seen among the other parties, particularly the ruling BJP.

It is also a matter of pride that after an epic saga as the longest-serving Congress President, Sonia Gandhi passes on the baton to a veteran Dalit leader. As far as the Congress commitment to Dalits is concerned, it is no tokenism, but is backed up by solid work done by the party, right from Mahatma Gandhi, up to Sonia Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi had started the Harijan Fund, ran a paper called Harijan, spearheaded the cause of Dalits entry into temples and encouraged the upper castes to sit down along with the Dalits and to partake food, or 'sahpankti bhojan.'

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru worked for enacting laws to outlaw Untouchability. Rajiv Gandhi brought the SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in 1989. Under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress-led UPA Government ended the shameful practice of Manual Scavenging. Sonia Gandhi also was instrumental in ensuring passing of the amendment to the SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, in order to make the law more stringent.

In the past, the Congress had distinguished Dalit leaders as Congress President, like Damodaram Sanjeevaiah in 1962 and Babu Jagjivan Ram in 1971 and 1972.

The last time the AICC Plenary was held outside New Delhi was in 2005. Then, it was held in Hyderabad, under the leadership of the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

As many as 16,000 delegates have been invited to attend this AICC Plenary Session. The duly-elected AICC and co-opted delegates are 1,825. The elected and co-opted PCC delegates account for another 12,015 delegates. Besides, all the DCC Presidents and national office-bearers of the frontal organizations, along with the Bharat Yatris, or those who took part in the Padayatra along with Rahul Gandhi, all across the country, are also being invited to this Plenary Session as Special Invitees.

(The author is President of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee)