Patna: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is being held in Patna Today for the first time since India’s independence, in a move party leaders say could shape its campaign ahead of next year’s Bihar assembly elections.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party leader Rahul Gandhi, general secretary KC Venugopal, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy DK Shivakumar, Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy, and senior figures including Salman Khurshid, Sachin Pilot and Randeep Surjewala arrived in Patna late Tuesday evening. The meeting, hosted at Sadaqat Ashram, is scheduled to run until late afternoon.
Ahead of proceedings, Gandhi was greeted by supporters at the Congress office after his arrival from Patna airport. However, outside the ashram, police clashed with party workers over entry restrictions, leading to a brief scuffle.
Asked about the party’s choice of chief ministerial candidate in Bihar, Khurshid said Congress would make a decision only after securing victory in the polls.
The gathering is being billed as a morale-boosting exercise for Congress workers in Bihar, where the party is seeking to project itself as a central player in the state’s opposition alliance. Leaders point to the 2023 Telangana assembly elections, when a high-profile CWC meeting in Hyderabad was followed by a Congress victory in the state, as evidence of the committee’s political impact.
The Patna session has also drawn attention to the presence of Reddy, who courted controversy in December 2023 after remarks disparaging Bihar. During an attack on the then Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Reddy claimed “Telangana’s DNA is better than Bihar’s” – comments that were widely condemned as insulting by Biharis.
Congress strategists say Today’s meeting aims to underline the party’s commitment to Bihar while galvanising its cadre ahead of the polls.
