New Delhi: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will convene a special meeting in Belagavi, Karnataka, to mark 100 years since Mahatma Gandhi assumed the presidency of the Congress party. The meeting will take place at the same venue where Gandhi first took on the role of the president. Both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are expected to attend the meeting. The over 200 attendees will include CWC members, 150 MPs, permanent invitees, special invitees, PCCs, CLP leaders, and Parliamentary party office-bearers and former Chief Ministers. The meeting is being hailed as the ‘Nav Satyagraha’.
Earlier on December 24, Congress General Secretary-Organisation, KC Venugopal, had said, “To commemorate the historic session of Congress held 100 years ago in Belagavi, we are holding the CWC meeting and calling it ‘Nav Satyagrah Baithak’.
The meeting will begin at 2:30 pm in Mahatma Gandhi Nagar on Thursday. On December 27, a ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bheem, Jai Samvidhan’ rally will be taken out at 11:30 am, in which AICC members and party workers will participate.
The 39th session of the Indian National Congress, which was held in Belagavi in 1924, was the only Congress session chaired by Mahatma Gandhi. During this session, the ‘Father of the Nation’ made an appeal for spinning Khadi and gave the call for non-cooperation, which became a major movement in pre-independence India. Subhas Chandra Bose, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Shaukat Ali, Saifuddin Kitchlew, and others were also present at the session held 100 years ago.
What will be discussed at the meeting?
The event will be celebrated in a grand way, with a statue of Mahatma Gandhi to be unveiled at Veera Soudha on Thursday. A Khadi mela will also be inaugurated. The Gangadhar Deshpande Memorial and a photo gallery of Gangadhar Deshpande will be inaugurated on Thursday.
The CWC meeting will chalk out an action plan and programme for the Indian National Congress for 2025, and also adopt two key resolutions. Besides, the meeting will deliberate on the critical challenges facing the nation under the BJP rule. According to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, the CWC will decide on the approach the party will take to guide the country in the right direction.
CWC member Girish Chodankar reportedly said that the CWC meeting in Belagavi is very important as it will decide the new direction for the party. Organisational matters and the party’s strategies to amplify its voice are expected to be discussed at the meeting.
