While Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole is insisting on going solo in the coming local body polls, other leaders of the party are in favour of fighting in an alliance. No consensus could be reached on this matter at the party’s two-day conclave in Shirdi, which concluded on Thursday.
However, some of the resolutions where the leaders were unanimous included an anti-trust law to prevent corporate monopolies, bringing corporate social responsibility funding under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, and starting an employment guarantee scheme in urban areas in the Congress-ruled states.
While Patole has earlier spoken about the party contesting the local body elections on its own, public works department minister Ashok Chavan has suggested alliances. A committee under Chavan has recommended that panels be set up at the state and district level to decide on alliances with “like-minded parties” for the polls to the municipal corporations, councils, and zilla parishads due later this year.
The Congress has constituted six groups to deliberate and finalise a set of resolutions on politics, social justice, agriculture, organisational overhaul, economy, and youth and women empowerment.
“The party will recommend that an anti-trust law be formulated to prevent the creation of corporate monopolies,” a Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said.
Such anti-trust laws or competition laws are in force in countries like the United States to prevent predatory business practices and ensure fair competition. In the past, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Narendra Modi-led government of being pro-corporate through his ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ jibe.
Similarly, the state unit of Congress wanted 33% reservation for women in the assemblies, said the leader quoted earlier, adding they were also seeking full-fledged resumption of campus elections in colleges and universities.
The Women’s Reservation Bill or the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill was approved by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 during the tenure of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, but was not voted upon by the Lower House. The Bill proposes to reserve a third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies for women.
Similarly, the state government had in 2019 allowed the resumption of student elections on campuses after they were banned in 1993 after a murder of a student activist in Mumbai in 1989. However, under these new rules, there will be no panel of candidates and they cannot use symbols or logos of political parties or organisations in their campaign. This means members of student wings of political parties have to contest without declaring their political affiliations.
The Congress leader said other resolutions passed at the conclave included the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority taking up mega housing projects, creation of employment opportunities locally, using sports to create job opportunities, party ministers holding janata darbars every fortnight, a home stay policy by the state government to boost tourism, a scheme to provide grants to landless labourers to buy farmland, and withdrawing cases lodged against Dalit activists in the wake of the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots.
“Some of these resolutions, which pertain to the state government, will be submitted to it through [revenue minister and Congress legislative party leader] Balasaheb Thorat. The others will be sent to the Central government through the All India Congress Committee [AICC]. We are also seeking that the AICC organise a conclave of states ruled by the party where we can discuss the rollout of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, in urban areas and the NYAY scheme [which is a minimum income guarantee and cash transfer scheme for the poor as promised by the party in its 2019 general election manifesto],” he added.
51 office-bearers step down
In line with the resolutions adopted at the party’s Chintan Shivir in Udaipur last month, 51 office-bearers of the party have stepped down from their positions. The Chintan Shivir had adopted the ‘one family, one ticket’ and ‘one man, one post’ principles apart from a fixed five-year cap on organisational tenures.
MLA Vikas Thakare has resigned as the Nagpur city chief of the Congress, while spokesperson Atul Londhe has quit as the general secretary. General secretary Devanand Pawar has resigned as the chief of the farmers’ cell, while former minister Ramesh Bagwe, who is also the vice-president of the MPCC, has resigned as the Pune city president.