Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, along with other top leaders of the party’s state units, gathered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, for the landmark All India Congress Committee (AICC) session that began on Tuesday.
The two-day session on the banks of the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad will be held under the leadership of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. During the session, themed “Nyaypath: Sankalp, Samarpan, Sangharsh”, the Congress is expected to discuss its ideological and political roadmap ahead of the crucial electoral season.
Kharge, along with senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and other members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), paid tributes at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial before commencing the meeting.
The last time the AICC held its session in Gujarat was in January 1961 in Bhavnagar, under the presidency of Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy. Ahmedabad hosted its first Congress session under the leadership of Surendranath Banerjee in 1902.
This return, said party leaders, will set a new direction for the country.
“We have come to the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, who strengthened this country. This session will set a new direction for the country, and Congress will move ahead strongly,” said Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai, crediting the Gujarat unit for the smooth organisation of the event.
“I am happy to be in Ahmedabad. We must revive the Congress with new energy, momentum, and direction. That is the goal of Rahul Gandhi and Kharge ji,” said senior Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Amid the row over the Waqf Amendment Bill, former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde asserted that the Congress party is committed to the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi. “We do not run governments in the name of caste and religion. This is the land of Gandhi, who taught us ‘Ishwar Allah Tere Naam’. We are committed to that path.”
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and veteran leader P Chidambaram, along with State Unit Chiefs and other prominent leaders, have arrived in Ahmedabad for the meeting.
The meeting will bring together Congress leaders from across the country as the party tries to rebuild its base in Gujarat — a state where it has been out of power since 1995.
Meanwhile, the BJP has taken a swipe at the Congress Party over its Gujarat AICC session. BJP leader CR Kesavan said, “It is said that this Congress session is happening after 64 years, the last one happened in 1961. During this time, the Congress has degenerated into a den of corruption, peddling their dangerous, poisonous, and communal politics of polarisation…”
The BJP leader added: “The party has always gone against the ideals of both these icons, and now they are preaching them. It is the same Congress that denied giving Bharat Ratna to Sardar Patel. “