The Congress has not taken a decision on attending the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, he will take a decision on the matter “very soon”.
Amidst raging speculation on a possible appointment of a “convenor” for the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, Mr. Kharge said that a decision on who should hold which post will be taken in 10-15 days.
Mr. Kharge was addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters in New Delhi after launching the logo for Manipur-to- Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that will begin on January 14.
Mr. Kharge and former party President Sonia Gandhi have been invited to attend the Ram Temple event. Besides them, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, has also been invited for the ceremony. No Chief Ministers have been invited for the event.
“I have got the invitation. Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s former principal secretary had come along with the secretary of the (temple) trust, and they had invited me. I will decide on it very soon,” Mr. Kharge said
At a time when the party is prevaricating on the matter, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, had said, that if he was invited he would attend the event. Mr. Kharge dismissed his remarks, saying that the invitation has not been extended to the Chief Minister. “It is about ‘personal astha’... If there is an invite, you can go, anyone else can go,” he said.
When asking if he would be appointed as chairperson of the INDIA bloc and if there will be a convenor, he said “It is like asking ‘kaun banega crorepati’(quiz show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan). “When we hold our meeting, we will decide in 10-15 days who will hold which post,” he asserted, while noting that everybody is working in a united manner to come up with solutions for issues.
The Congress, he asserted, is working on all 545 Lok Sabha constituencies and will be appointing observers for all the seats. But the conclusive tally of seats that party will contest will depend on division of seats, as fixed by the INDIA bloc after consultations. As per internal assessments for now, it is believed that the party could contest anything between 255 to 300 seats, which is far below the 2019 tally, when it had contested 421 seats.
Mr. Kharge refused to lay down a deadline for concluding the seat-sharing talks and said a decision will be made “soon”.
When asked about seat-sharing talks, sources said that they will be held keeping in mind that it is for a national election and the final decision will be taken at the central level by the party president in consultation with other senior leaders.
