History of Congress Working Committee Meetings, Today “Vote Theft” Issue to Echo in Bihar

For the first time since independence, the Congress Working Committee meeting is being organized in Bihar’s capital Patna. The party aims to make “vote theft” the central political issue, while projecting Rahul Gandhi as a people’s leader. By invoking the freedom struggle with the slogan “We fought against the British then, now we will fight against the thieves,” Congress seeks to launch a new wave of political resistance ahead of the Bihar elections.

Congress Working Committee’s Role and Background

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has always played a crucial role in shaping the decisions and strategies of the Congress Party. Since the Congress returned to power in 2004, most of the CWC meetings have traditionally been held in New Delhi. However, on a few occasions, the party’s most influential decision-making body has gathered outside the capital. For instance, during the 2006 Hyderabad convention in Andhra Pradesh, at the chief ministers’ conference in Chandigarh, Haryana-Punjab, and also in Nainital, Uttarakhand during the second CM conference.

In 2013, the Jaipur convention also hosted a CWC session, where Rahul Gandhi was appointed as the party’s Vice President. Later, in Wardha, Maharashtra, another meeting was organized as part of a program dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a significant decision regarding the “Nyay Yojana,” which promised an annual support of ₹72,000 to poor families, was taken at the CWC meeting in Ahmedabad.

Beginning of Meetings Outside Delhi

After 2004, whenever a plenary session or a major organizational event of the party was held outside Delhi, the CWC meeting automatically became part of that schedule. Over time, however, a shift occurred. Decisions were made to conduct CWC sessions outside Delhi not merely as extensions of conventions but as independent and significant gatherings. Still, most plenary sessions and organizational conventions continued to take place in the capital, along with CWC meetings.

Following the defeats in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, several senior leaders strongly recommended that the CWC should not be confined to special programs. Instead, it should convene regularly across different states of India. According to them, such meetings send out a strong message, motivate local party workers, and also help expand the Congress Party’s reach in those regions.

“Vote Theft” Issue Becomes Central in Bihar Meeting

The Congress leadership accepted these suggestions in principle. As a result, meetings were organized in Udaipur during the Chintan Shivir, in Raipur, Chhattisgarh during the convention, and in Hyderabad, Telangana. The CWC also met in Belagavi, Karnataka, followed by a significant gathering in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, under the “Sangathan Srijan” program.

Adding to this list, Bihar will now host its first-ever CWC meeting after independence. The meeting in Patna carries immense symbolic weight, as the Congress seeks to link the land of Buddha with the memory of Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom struggle. The central theme of this session is to highlight “vote theft” as a pressing national issue. Through this narrative, the party aims to project Rahul Gandhi as a people’s leader who will spearhead the campaign against electoral malpractice.

Congress leaders emphasize that the hard-won independence, along with democracy and the Constitution, is being undermined by the BJP through “vote theft.” The party plans to counter this by invoking the spirit of the freedom struggle. With the slogan, “We fought against the British then, now we will fight against the thieves,” the Congress hopes to spark a second wave of resistance, presenting Bihar as the launchpad for its campaign.