From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: With just 7 sittings of Parliament’s budget session left before its closure, the Congress has booked the Central Hall of Parliament on Tuesday to hold a meeting of the party MPs from both the Houses of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to strategise cornering of the government on a range of issues, including price rise, daily hike of the prices of petrol and diesel by 80 paise a litre and diplomatic relations.
This is the first meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting convened by party president Sonia Gandhi after receiving flaks on the recent poll debacle in seven states.
She had earlier held a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on the poll debacle and she has also proposed a Chintan conclave later this month or in February. Meetings of the AICC general secretary and the state in-charges as well as one of the state presidents and general secretaries were held to strengthen the party and conduct a series of protests across the country against the price rise.
The rebels’ attempt to corner the Gandhis in the CWC misfired as Sonia Gandhi expressed readiness to “make any and every sacrifice” in the party’s interest and the CWC unanimously urged her to continue in the post until the organisation polls already put into the process are completed.
The Congress has extended the deadline for the membership drive that started on November 1 last year from March 31 to April 15. The party sources claimed the drive, both in online and physical mode, has already resulted in the membership cross 1.2 crore.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal says the extension of the membership drive will have no change in the organisational election calendar drawn up by the CWC.
