Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is scheduled to be held under the leadership of party president Mallikarjun Kharge in Telangana on 16 September to prepare a strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in five states and the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. Congress wanted to convey that it would battle tenaciously to topple the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government by organising the crucial gathering in Hyderabad.
Now, in an interesting development, posters critical of prominent members of Congress who have been accused of corruption have been installed in the state capital before the crucial meeting in which CWC has been referred to as the Corrupt Working Committee. Furthermore, a corruption scandal is attached to the name of every significant Congress leader.
The poster advises people to “beware of scamgress scammers.” “BookmyCM” posters have also been erected against Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao before the meeting, similar to what happened in Karnataka. The government is charged with taking a 30% commission on the banner.
The posters took potshots at the grand old party and read things like “Madam Gandhi, do you agree with your PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) President’s statement that only 3 hours of electricity supply is enough for farmers to do agriculture.”
A comparison between the two political entities was also drawn on the posters which remarked, “During Congress government, UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi promised national status for the Palamuru Rangareddy Project. They failed to keep their promise.” It further added, “Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao completed the Palamuru Rangareddy Project on 16 September trial run.”
A poster featured, “2004 to 2014 Congress was in power and fooled Dalits on Scheduled Caste categorisation. Now again on the name of the declaration, you want to do the same,” accusing the party of tricking the minorities.
On the other hand, Congress leaders claimed that this meeting is set to prove to be a game changer for the politics of Telangana as well as the party. The Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge proclaimed that this would be the first CWC meeting after he was appointed as the party president in October last year. He noted that there would be a meeting of the Extended Working Committee on 17 September in which the party organisation is scheduled to be discussed.
He observed that many major leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be a part of the meeting in which the upcoming elections in five states are going to be discussed. He asserted that their focus would be on strengthening the outfit and the opposition alliance would be discussed in the I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal revealed, “We have invited 90 people, but six of them have informed us about their inability to attend due to personal difficulties. All the other 84 people, including our four chief ministers, will attend.”
He added that Telangana National Unity Day is celebrated on 17th September. A “mega rally” is set to be held near Hyderabad on the evening of 17 September where the Congress would announce six guarantees for the Telangana Assembly elections.
General secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh announced that the CWC, which is going to be presided over by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, would convene its three-day meeting outside of Delhi for the first time in many years.
The CWC meeting would commence at 2:30 PM to discuss the campaign strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The party’s top brass, including Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot and Gaurav Gogoi, among others are expected to be a part of it.
