A meeting of the general secretaries, and State unit presidents of the Congress held here on Tuesday has decided to hold a membership drive, ideology training programme for the cadre and grass-roots agitation programme against the BJP-ruled governments. At the meeting presided over by party president Sonia Gandhi, it was also decided to start preparations for the organisational elections slated for August-September 2022.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was also present in the meeting. Talking to reporters after the meeting, AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party will start a “massive membership drive” commencing November 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. “It was unanimously agreed that the Congress would reach out to every nook and corner, every ward and village across the country and offer Indians in the remotest parts, a platform for their aspirations. Special emphasis was laid on enrolling first time voters as members of the Congress,” he said.

He said his party’s leaders and workers will visit the localities and homes of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes to hold interactions with these sections on the steps taken by the Congress for their welfare and inclusion and to identify the way forward for addressing the pain points.

He said the meeting recognised a systematic attack unleashed by the BJP/RSS on the Congress ideology and on the fundamentals of justice, equality and affirmative action enshrined in the Constitution. “The meeting expressed concern over the systematic subjugation of democracy by unconstitutional means and virtually holding every institution captive to the whims and caprices of the ruling elite. The meeting noted that every party functionary-from ordinary congress workers to the senior most Congress leader-would need to take on this fight based on the core of the congress ideology and the founding principles of India. To do this meaningfully, it was resolved to initiate a comprehensive training programme at all levels of the party,” he said.

The leaders agreed to undertake issue and policy-based training programmes to counter the “propaganda, lies and malicious campaigns unleashed by the ruling regime, both by word of mouth and through social media”. “Their perverted attempt at rewriting India’s founding principles endangers both, the core of our democracy and polity and we must fight it in the national interest,” Surjewala said. The meeting also decided that a massive grass roots agitation on inflation called Jan Jagran Abhiyan will be launched with the involvement of senior party leaders between November 14 and 29.

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