Congress leaders meet to discuss plans for Budget Session amid reports of leadership change

Congress leader K Suresh said that a high-level meeting was called by party-leadership to chalk out a strategy for the second phase of the Budget session of Parliament.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader K Suresh on Sunday said that the purpose of the high-level meeting called by party-leadership was to chalk out a strategy for the second phase of the Budget session of Parliament, which will commence tomorrow.

We held a discussion on the issues to be raised in the upcoming Parliament session. We will try to raise the issues of inflation, unemployment, MSP for farmers and medical students returning from Ukraine: LoP Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, at Delhi pic.twitter.com/BSANsgD9Qi

— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2022

Suresh’s comments came after reports that the party’s Interim President Sonia Gandhi will hold a  meeting to discuss the changes in the leadership after the poor performance of Congress in all the five assembly elections 2022, later in the day.

"We held a discussion on the issues to be raised in the upcoming Parliament session. We will try to raise the issues of inflation, unemployment, MSP for farmers and medical students returning from Ukraine," said LoP Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

The Congress lost Punjab to the AAP and could not wrest any of the four other states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur - from the BJP.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, K Suresh and Jairam Ramesh already arrived at 10, Janpath, for the party’s parliamentary strategy group meeting.

Later, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting of the party's top decision-making body at its headquarters here at 4 pm on Sunday.

While Sonia Gandhi has not been actively campaigning for some time, Rahul Gandhi has been the key campaigner for the Congress besides Priyanka Gandhi, with the brother-sister duo also playing a major role in key decisions of the party.

Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in general elections in 2019.

Later, Sonia Gandhi who took over the reins of the party again as interim president had also offered to quit in August 2020 after an open revolt by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the CWC had urged her to continue.