Congress says no opposition unity possible without it ahead of plenary session starting Feb 24

Ahead of its plenary next week, the Congress on Sunday said the party top brass will deliberate and give direction on ways to forge opposition unity during the three-day conclave, asserting that any such effort without it would be unsuccessful.

The plenary session in Chhattisgarh's Nava Raipur will start from February 24 and is expected to be attended by around 15,000 delegates.

Congress general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said the party's steering committee would meet on the first day of the session and decide whether elections would be held for the party's top decision-making body -- the Congress Working Committee (CWC), a demand made by some from within the organisation.

The Congress knows its role in bringing together various opposition parties for forging an alliance ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to take on the BJP and oust it from power, he said.

"The Congress has already taken the initiative and has been in touch with various political parties. There is a clear-cut initiative taken by the Congress in bringing opposition parties together and we will certainly bring them together against the BJP in the 2024 elections," Venugopal told a press conference here.

"The direction on opposition unity will come from the party's plenary session, where this issue will be deliberated upon," he said and added that the main job is to defeat the BJP in 2024.

Venugopal said that this plenary is a reflection of the sentiments of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and an extension of the Udaipur Chintan Shivir. The plenary has been given the tagline "Haath se Haath Jodo" as it is happening in the midst of the party's countrywide "Haath se Haath Jodo" campaign, he said.

Congress general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh said the party recognises that opposition unity is important and added that this issue will be deliberated upon at the plenary session.

"Nobody needs to give us a certificate that we have to lead because any opposition unity without the Congress will be unsuccessful. So we welcome the statement of Nitish Kumar, and as Venugopal ji has said this will be discussed in the plenary and whatever we have to do for the 2024 polls," he said at the press conference while taking a swipe at Bihar Chief Minister Kumar's statement that the Congress should take the initiative in bringing opposition unity.

"But before that there are several assembly polls. But without a strong Congress, strong opposition unity is impossible," Ramesh said, amid talk of the opposition unitedly taking on the BJP in the general elections.

The Congress welcomes the statement made by Chief Minister Kumar and "he has acknowledged that the Bharat Jodo Yatra has had an impact not only on the Congress but on Indian politics", he said.

"It is a tranformational moment for Indian politics, he has acknowledged," Ramesh said referring to Kumar's statement on the success of the Kanyakumari-Kashmir yatra that ended in Srinagar last month.

"We welcome this and we know our role very well. The Congress is the only political party that has never made a compromise with the BJP anywhere. There are some opposition parties who come for (Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition) Mallikarjun Kharge's meetings but their actions are in favour of the ruling party. We are not two-faced with respect to the BJP," he said.

The Congress is opposed to the BJP and it wants a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Adani issue, Ramesh said and added that it will keep raising the issue till the investigation is ordered into the "scam". He said there would be deliberations on things such as whether there would be a pre-poll alliance or other such modalities, and pointed out that the Congress was in alliance with several parties in various states.

Venugopal said the agenda for the three-day 85th plenary session of the party from February 24 to 26 would be finalised in the steering committee meeting to be held on the first day and thereafter, the subjects committee will give final shape to the resolutions to be adopted.

He said this will be the party's first plenary session to be held outside Delhi since the last one in Hyderabad in 2005.

Venugopal termed the plenary session an "important milestone" in the journey towards the 2024 parliamentary elections and that around 15,000 delegates from across the country will participating in it.

Giving the break-up of the number of delegates, he said there are 1,338 All India Congress Committee delegates and 487 co-opted ones, which comes to a total of 1,825 delegates. Besides, there will be a total of 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee delegates attending the session, Venugopal said.

Party treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal said the session will end with a public rally in Raipur, which top leaders will address.

Kumari Selja, who is the AICC general secretary in-charge for Chattisgarh, said of the total AICC delegates, there are 235 women and 501 below 50 years of age. Besides, there will be 704 from the general category, 228 from among minorities, 381 from other backward classes, 192 from among scheduled castes and another 133 from among the scheduled tribes.

The Congress leader said the current political situation in the country will be deliberated upon as the plenary session was happening after the successful completion of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The Congress had given a call to opposition parties asking them to join the yatra, Ramesh said and added that "we recognise that opposition unity is important".

"I have said earlier also that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was not for opposition unity. Opposition unity can be a consequence of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and this will be deliberated upon at the plenary. What shape that will take, we can't say for now," he said.