U'khand Cong leaders meet Kharge, Rahul; 2024 LS polls on agenda

The Congress on Thursday said it will establish a dialogue with the people in Uttarakhand through a padayatra as its leaders from the state met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi here to chalk out a plan for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. A similar meeting was held with members of the Maharashtra Congress unit earlier this week. More such meetings with other state units will follow.

The Uttarakhand Congress leaders, who participated in the meeting, included former chief minister Harish Rawat, PCC president Karan Mahara and AICC in-charge for the state Devender Yadav.

Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and all party secretaries for the hill state were also present at the meeting. In a message to the state unit, Kharge said the Congress is committed to environment-friendly development of Himalayan states. He said the party has pledged to work for flood victims, adding that that the Congress will keep raising the voice of the people of the state. ”Devbhoomi Uttarakhand is facing new challenges today. Our leaders and workers in the state are playing the role of a strong opposition, exposing the anti-people policies of the BJP government. Our endeavour is that all people live together in Uttarakhand, and take the state towards progress. The Congress is continuously raising the voice of the weaker section of society,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

At present, our duty is to help the public in the crisis due to floods and landslides in Uttarakhand and to get help from the government system, he said. ”We are in favour of formulating a concrete policy on Himalayan states on climate change and its side effects, and believe that any development work should be done only with the consent of the local people,” the Congress president added. Gandhi, in a Facebook post, said, ”The Congress party will establish a dialogue with the people in Uttarakhand through a padayatra and will raise voice against injustice like Agneepath scheme for youth of Uttarakhand and against the crimes against women in the state.” There are five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand and the Congress did not win any in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Yadav later told reporters that during the meeting, all the leaders expressed themselves frankly and discussed the shortcomings and how to move forward. ”We have received good guidance from our leadership and we hope that today’s meeting will help the party emerge strong to make 2024 a successful year.

”We will chalk out a programme to implement the suggestions received,” he said.

Mahara said Kharge and Gandhi ”guided us on what to do for 2024. We will carry out a padayatra and highlight the loss of dreams of youth due to Agniveer scheme who want to join armed forces. Rahul Gandhi himself will participate in it for a few days and Priyanka Gandhi and other leaders will also participate in this yatra”.

He said they will prepare a roadmap for it soon and will also raise issues like atrocities on women, including the Ankita murder case, besides raising various scams. Leader of the Opposition in the state Yashpal Arya said the 2024 elections are very important and many burning issues in Uttarakhand will be raised, adding the atmosphere is changing and that is visible. ”It is our endeavour to reach out to people, communicate with them and raise issues they have and force the government to act on them,” he noted.

”On paper leaks and scams, the Congress has demanded a judicial inquiry with investigation under supervision of a sitting judge of the high court. But the government wants to suppress those cases, but we will communicate with public through padyatras and unitedly fight the next Lok Sabha elections,” he said.