Former MLA Rakesh Kalia returns to Congress after a brief stint in BJP
He joined the BJP in 2022 after being denied a Congress ticket to contest the Assembly elections from Gagret in Himachal Pradesh.
Newly elected Congress President Rahul Gandhi will on Friday chair a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and is likely to discuss a host of issues including the 2G verdict and the party’s improved showing in Gujarat polls.
This will be first CWC meeting after Rahul took charge as Congress chief on December 16, 2017, from his mother Sonia Gandhi. The Gandhi scion will be felicitated by the members.
According to party sources, decisions on vital organisational restructuring are likely to be taken in the meeting as Rahul had recently said that his plan was to transform the Congress from bottom upwards.
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The 47-year-old leader will also be discussing the party’s future strategy after Gujarat elections, where it improved its tally and restricted BJP to 99 seats.
The meeting will also chalk out a strategy to prepare for the upcoming Assembly polls in 2018 in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh along with the northeastern states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
The new party chief is also likely to finalise a plan to counter the Narendra Modi government in both houses of Parliament in the wake of the 2G verdict which gave a clean chit to all accused and vindicated the UPA II government.
The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used the alleged scam to mount a fierce campaign against the Congress ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Alleged corruption under UPA II was widely believed to have led to the defeat of the Manmohan Singh government.
The Congress, sources said, wants to take the 2G issue to the people for which it is likely to formalise a plan soon. The CWC, the party’s highest decision-making body, is also likely to adopt a resolution to this effect.
Although, Rahul Gandhi has chaired CWC meetings in the past in the absence of Sonia Gandhi, it will be for the first time that he will preside over as party chief.
Gandhi was elected unopposed as Congress chief on December 11 and assumed the party’s reins on December 16.
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