NEW DELHI: The Congress’ top leadership on Saturday began crucial deliberations on the Lok Sabha election results to chalk out its future strategy at a meeting of the party’s working committee here. The extended meeting of the party’s top decision-making body the Congress Working Committee (CWC) started at Hotel Ashok here. Senior party leaders and members of the CWC, along with Congress Legislature Party leaders and Pradesh Congress Committee presidents from various states, will analyse the party’s performance and suggest measures to strengthen the organisation. The Congress’ top brass, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, besides other leaders will participate in the deliberations. Kharge, who has convened the meeting, will also host a dinner for all extended CWC members and party MPs at the hotel. A meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party comprising all newly-elected MPs of the Lok Sabha and those of the Rajya Sabha will be held in the Central Hall of Parliament at 5.30 pm, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. The party MPs will also elect the new Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson at this meeting. Sonia Gandhi is likely to be re-elected as CPP Chairperson. “The 2024 elections have been a moral defeat for Narendra Modi and the BJP while being a morale booster for the Indian National Congress and the INDIA Janbandhan. The extended Congress Working Committee is meeting at 11 am today and the Congress Parliamentary Party will meet at 5.30 pm,” Ramesh said in a post on X. The Congress has emerged as the second-largest party in the Lok Sabha, improving its tally to 99 from 52 in the 2019 elections. This will be the first time that the Congress, since its ouster from power in 2014, will get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It failed to get the position in the past 10 years as its tally was below the requisite 10 per cent of total seats in the House, both in 2014 and 2019. A section within the party strongly feels that former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi should take over as leader of the party and opposition in the Lok Sabha. The issue is likely to be discussed in the meetings of the CWC and the Parliamentary Party. Rahul Gandhi won both the Wayanad and Rae Bareli seats in the elections and will have to decide within 14 days which seat he will hold and which he will vacate. He will have to make a decision before the oath-taking ceremony, likely to take place next week. The Congress has emerged as a strong force in Parliament after the elections and the party is looking forward to cornering the government on issues concerning the common people, including price rise and unemployment, in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
