The Congress held a series of important meetings on Monday as the party gears for the Lok Sabha elections. The Manifesto Committee, headed by former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, discussed the draft manifesto and separately, meetings of screening committees were held to shortlist candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
On March 7, the Central Election Committee will meet to finalise the names for the first list of Lok Sabha candidates, said sources.
The manifesto committee will also be meeting on Tuesday for further discussions. Sources said the panel cleared about 10 pages of the 50-page document on Monday. Once the document is finalised, it will be sent to the Congress Working Committee for its final stamp of approval. On Saturday, The Hindu had reported that giving legal guarantee to minimum support price, conducting a caste-based census, and filling up existing government vacancies as a priority would prominently figure in the Congress manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
A source told The Hindu that apart from caste census, the party would focus on better access to education for marginalised sections, higher scholarships, economic packages for different target groups like women, youth, backward classes, micro and small entrepreneurs, gig workers and so on.
Thematically, the document would thematically focus on paanch nyay or five pillars of justice that Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has been highlighting for past two months.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Mr. Gandhi said that the data presented by the central government in Parliament showed that 9,64,000 posts were vacant across 78 departments. “If we look at important departments only, 2.93 lakh posts are vacant in the Railways, 1.43 lakh in the Home Ministry and 2.64 lakh in the Defence Ministry,” he said.
“The vacant posts are the right of the youth of the country and we have prepared a concrete plan to fill them. INDIA’s [the Opposition bloc] resolve is that we will open closed doors of jobs for the youth,” Mr. Gandhi asserted.
Quoting the former Congress chief’s post, Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh said each government job that is lying vacant is not just an anyay (injustice) to the educated, job-seeking youth, but a “failure” of the Modi government.
“It is a classroom without a teacher, a road without proper maintenance, a hospital without a nurse, and a railway crossing without an operator,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding that a government with nearly 10 lakh vacant posts will never be able to function effectively.
