Kharge tells Congress office-bearers they will be held accountable for future election results

AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge with the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

After a series of setbacks in recent Assembly elections, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday (February 19, 2025) put stress on strengthening the organisation and said that party office-bearers would be held “accountable” for future election results in States under their charge.

Addressing All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries and in-charges, including those appointed last week, at a meeting held at Indira Bhavan, the party headquarters, Mr. Kharge stressed the need to promote those who “dedicated” themselves to the party’s ideology and asked his colleagues to be “wary of ideologically weak turncoats”. Using a Hindi proverb, he advised the office-bearers to be wary of choosing “imitations over original”.

Referring to the recent organisational reshuffle, Mr. Kharge signalled that a few more changes are in the offing.

The thrust of the meeting was on strengthening the organisational structure through capacity-building, empowering the district-level units, and promoting fresh leadership at the local level. Mr. Kharge asked the general secretaries and booth in-charges to start work from the booth-level unit and work with frontal organisations.

“I want to talk to you about the most important thing of accountability. You all will be held accountable for revamping the organisations in States and for all future election results,” Mr. Kharge told the office-bearers.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh, and all general secretaries and in-charges of various States were among those who attended the seven-hour review meeting.

Mr. Gandhi is learnt to have encouraged to evolve a strategy that would focus on self-management at all levels of the party organisation.

“Last December, at Belgavi, we had said that 2025 will be the year of the organisation…There were lots of suggestion on empowering the 800-odd district level units,” Mr. Ramesh told reporters after the meeting.

Key issues

The key issues that figured in the marathon meeting included a discussion on the contours of the Samvidhan Bachao Yatra that will be taken out as a relay march in different States, an AICC session in Gujarat in April, strengthening of the District Congress Committees, and the functioning of the Election Commission with regard to the party’s demand for more information on voters’ list.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Kharge flagged the issue of alleged “voter list manipulation” and claimed that it is happening on a large scale in elections. He added that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had also raised a question about this in the Lok Sabha.

“All of you will realise that these days the names of our supporters are deleted from the voters list. Or the name is removed and added to the adjacent booth. New names are added by the BJP just before the election. This rigging has to be stopped at all costs,” Mr. Kharge said.

He pointed out that earlier the Chief Justice of India was also included in the committee that selects the Chief Election Commission (CEC) by the order of the Supreme Court but the Narendra Modi government removed the CJI from the panel.

“The government does not even trust the impartiality of the Chief Justice of the country… Rahulji also said that what is the use of such a selection committee, where you are using Leader of Opposition only for certification,” the Congress chief added.

The Congress chief also raised the issue of inflation and unemployment, the threat of reciprocal tariffs by the U.S., and the handcuffing of undocumented Indians while deporting them from the U.S.

“Despite Modiji’s visit, America is sending back Indian citizens handcuffed as before. Vegetarians were given non-vegetarian food. Our government also failed to protest this insult properly,” Mr. Kharge alleged, adding, “America is also hurting us deeply in economic matters. They imposed reverse tariff on us, but the Prime Minister did not even protest against it. They are forcibly imposing a loss-making deal on us, which our government is silently accepting.”