After No-Holds Barred Attack, Rahul Gandhi to Draw 2019 Roadmap at Key Congress Meet Today

New Delhi: The reconstituted Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision making body, will meet for the first time on Sunday under Congress president Rahul Gandhi to draw up party's strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and to discuss the present political situation in the country.

The CWC was announced four months after the AICC plenary session in March ratified the election of Rahul as party chief and authorised him to set up the new CWC.

Rahul on July 17 reconstituted the CWC in what seemed to be a balancing act between experienced hands and younger faces.

There are 18 permanent invitees and 10 special invitees, taking the number of CWC members to 51.

Apart from the state chiefs and legislature party leaders, the meeting will be attended by All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries, joint secretaries, heads of departments and cells, office bearers of the Congress Parliamentary Party and members of the central election committee, a panel that finalises the candidates for any state or Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of Rahul's no-holds barred speech in the Lok Sabha during a debate on the no-confidence motion on Friday. The Congress president launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and later, in a never before seen act, gave him a hug.

The Congress leader used his speech to reassert his Hindu identity and call himself a Siva devotee to counter the BJP’s campaign against him after an Urdu daily quoted him as saying that the Congress is a Muslim party.

“You all must think that I have a lot of hatred in my heart against the Prime Minister, but actually that is not the case. In fact, Modi Ji, the BJP and the RSS taught me the meaning of being a member of the Congress party. They have taught me the meaning of being Indian. They have taught me the meaning of being a Hindu and a devotee of Lord Shiva. Being an Indian and being a Congressman means no matter what falsehood someone speaks against you, you do not harbour ill-will against them. For this, I thank you,” Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha.

Post the no-confidence debate, several Congress leaders, including Randeep Surjewala and Shashi Tharoor, called the Congress chief’s speech a “game changer".