Poll alliance only after consulting local units
* Top party leaders to visit J&K ahead of polls: Kharge
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Aug 13: Demanding a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), into the alleged Adani ‘mega scam’, Congress Party today demanded resignation of the SEBI chairperson and declared nation-wide agitation over the issue of August 22.
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Chairing a crucial meeting of the party general secretaries, AICC Incharge States and heads of various State units on the elections preparedness in the four States/ UT including J&K, at New Delhi today, Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge said the ‘shocking revelations’ of a nexus; between the SEBI and Adani needs a thorough investigation.
“The money of small investors in the stock market can’t be jeopardised. The Modi Government must immediately seek the resignation of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), chairperson and constitute a JPC in this regard,” the Congress chief said.
Referring to the latest allegations made by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, the Congress chief said that the party will launch a nation-wide agitation on August 22 to demand the removal of SEBI chairperson, Madhabi Buch and a JPC inquiry into the Adani mega scam issue.
Kharge said the party’s focus is on the pressing issues of ‘unbridled unemployment’ and ‘uncontrolled inflation’, and it would design a national campaign around these problems and go to people.
“The pressing issues of unbridled unemployment and uncontrolled inflation and depletion of household savings are our focus. The poor and middle class have been betrayed,” he added.
Kharge claimed that attack on the Constitution continues unabated under the Modi-led NDA Government. He said the caste census is a demand of people and the Congress Party strongly supports it.
The Congress president said the party will continue its fight for demanding legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price of crop. He strongly reiterated that Agnipath Scheme must be scrapped.
He also attacked the Government over the issue of Railway safety saying “train derailments have become a norm”.
Climate-related disasters and collapsing infrastructure are also a cause of concern, the senior leader said. “We would design a national campaign around these issues and go to the people.”
AICC chief also urged the BJP-led Centre to take all possible steps to ensure that targeted attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship in Bangladesh are stopped and make sure that they are enabled to lead a life of security, dignity and harmony.
Party sources said that during the meeting, Kharge and the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, asked the concerned State unit heads and the In-charges of the States to intensify their activities in view of the upcoming Assembly elections and prepare party manifesto by including aspirations of the local people. They also advised them to identify candidates of integrity and good winning potential.
Kharge claimed that once the Assembly elections are announced for these four States/UT, the top Congress leaders will visit there for poll campaign. He said party’s top leadership will be with them to render full support.
The meeting also expressed its deepest distress at the devastating landslide tragedy in Kerala’s Wayanad and expressed its condolence.
It re-emphasised the demand made by Rahul Gandhi for declaring the landslides a national disaster, the party sources added.
Later, addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Congress general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal along with AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh gave detail of today’s meeting which was chaired by party president Kharge and held in presence of LOP Rahul Gandhi.
“Today, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge convened a meeting of the Congress party’s top leaders, including general secretaries, State in-charges, and State presidents. The meeting was also attended by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The party unanimously decided to have a nationwide agitation on issue demanding two things including JPC inquiry on Adani mega scam and removal of SEBI chairperson,” he added.
Venugopal said, “In the meeting it was decided that on August, 22, there will be a massive national level agitation. Thousands of our party workers will ‘Gherao’ the ED offices in the States.”.
Moreover, the party also reiterated its demand on a nationwide caste census from the Government without any delay and declaring Wayanad landslide disasters as a national disaster.
The Congress general secretary said that the meeting called upon the Government of India to take all possible steps to ensure that targeted attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship in Bangladesh are stopped and to ensure that they are enabled to lead a life of security, dignity and harmony.
Responding to a question on preparedness of Congress Party in the Assembly elections in four States /UT including J&K, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra and possible pre-poll alliance. The AICC general secretary said they recently had detailed meeting with the leaders of these States and took their feed-back on the issue but the decision on the pre-poll alliance will be taken after discussing the issue with the local units, he added.
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