At CWC meet, Rahul Gandhi calls for OBC outreach to corner BJP

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday told an extended Congress Working Committee meeting here on the eve of the AICC session that the future strategy for the Congress to take on the BJP and Modi government lies in an all-out party outreach to rally the Other Backward Castes as they account for more than 50% of the population, and clubbing them with SC-ST-minorities make it a formidable 90% of the population, sources said. Gandhi said the Congress neglected the OBCs from the '90s which was a tactical mistake and the time has come to repair it.

This, even as the CWC discussed the draft resolution to be placed at the AICC session on Wednesday which, besides emphasising that "organisational empowerment is our goal" in the context of the upcoming reinforcement of the District Congress Committees, tries to brew a 'social-economic 'nyay' (justice) plank, in line with Rahul Gandhi's pitch, as the party's new strategy for revival against the BJP-RSS and Modi government's nationalist-Hindutva positioning, sources said.

It is learnt that the 12-page draft made no mention of the INDIA bloc. However, some at the meeting felt the draft needed to be fine-tuned more before it is presented at Wednesday's session.


In between, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge is learnt to have said that Dalits in some places face exploitation from certain OBCs as much as from the upper caste. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra didn't attend the CWC meeting as she is learnt to be abroad. The draft contains a critique of the Modi government's political, economic, social and foreign policy while presenting the Congress as the original party of "true nationalism", a harbinger of inclusive economic growth, social justice and national harmony, and "guardian of democracy and defender of the Constitution" even as it put its seal on Rahul Gandhi's pet themes including conducting a caste census. The draft raps the Modi government's handling of President Trump's tariff decree. The Congress warns against any negative fallout on India's economic sectors including farmers, even as it seeks legal guarantees for MSP.

They will also pass a separate resolution, a critique of BJP's three-decade rule in Gujarat.

Faced with the RSS-BJP power-play over nationalism, the draft says: "The idea of nationalism for Congress is one that binds people together. The pseudo-nationalism of RSS-BJP seeks to divide people and society". The draft attacks the Modi government over the alleged attack on the Constitution and claims the current dispensation was trying to weaken reservation and not filling government job vacancies.