Patna: As it gets battle-ready for the Bihar Assembly polls, the Congress will hold a meeting of its working committee here on Wednesday for the first time in the state in post-independence era to brainstorm on its election strategy and ramping up its attack against the BJP on alleged “vote chori”.
It would be an extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, with permanent and special invitees, party’s chief ministers, Pradesh Congress Committee presidents and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders participating.
Sources said a couple of resolutions are expected to be passed at the crucial meeting with an eye on the upcoming Assembly polls.
The CWC meeting will be held at 10 am at Sadaqat Ashram here. This is the first time in the post-independence era that the party is holding a meeting of its top-decision making body in Bihar, according to party leaders.
All top leaders of the party, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, would be present at the meeting.
The focus is likely to be on Bihar, the party’s campaign strategy, future polls and ramping up the attack on the BJP over alleged “vote chori”, sources said.
They said a strong message will be sent out by the CWC on the “vote chori” issue and against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. The meeting comes amid seat-sharing talks between Mahagathbandhan allies and just days after Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ against alleged “vote chori” and the SIR of electoral rolls that enthused the party’s rank and file in the state.
The meeting also comes days after Gandhi held its second press conference on alleged “vote chori”, stepping up his attack on the issue.
Gandhi had accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy”. To buttress his allegation, he had cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted.
The Election Commission dubbed the allegations “incorrect and baseless”.
During a press conference here on Monday, AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru asserted that Congress was fighting “the second war of Independence” in Bihar, a reason why the meeting has been scheduled in the state.
The Congress leader alleged that the ruling BJP at the Centre was involved in “vote theft”, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “like a student who does not study hard, but takes recourse to unfair means for doing well in examinations”.