Andalib Akhter / NEW DELHI
In a clarion call, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today urged top Opposition leaders to rise above individual compulsions “in the interest of the nation” and start planning “systematically” for winning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“We should unite with the single-minded objective of giving India a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution,” Congress chief said.
Gandhi, addressing leaders of 19 like-minded parties, said, “Of course, the ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution. This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them.”
The Congress chief said the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence is indeed the most appropriate occasion for us to reaffirm “individual and collective resolve”.
“Let me say for its part, the Indian National Congress will not be found wanting,” she assured leaders including NCP’s Sharad Pawar, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, DMK chief MK Stalin, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray among others.
The virtual meeting, Gandhi symbolically organised on the birth anniversary of her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, saw the participation of 19 parties minus the SP, BSP, AAP, BJD.
Hailing the opposition unity in the recent Parliament session Gandhi said she hoped the momentum of opposition unity would last across future sessions too.
“This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them,” said Gandhi, ahead of a daunting task of bringing various regional outfits with conflicting interests to form a grand coalition to take on a formidable Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the next elections.
“Of course, the ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and the principles and provisions of our Constitution,” she said, in the first such meeting of top Opposition leaders in a year.
Maharashtra chief minister Udhav Thackeray, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India’s D Raja and others were present. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) were not invited while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) skipped the meeting.
Gandhi recalled suggestions made by the Congress to amend the vaccination policy which was later accepted by the Centre. “Some crucial changes were introduced in the procurement system of vaccines following our intervention. Needless to say, as always, somebody else has taken the credit. This does not matter really, as long as the people of the country have benefitted,” she said.