New Delhi, Feb 20 (Representative) The Congress on Sunday accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of trying to “crush” the opposition’s voice and said the country is witnessing “total authoritarianism” under the ruling dispensation. “The country is witnessing ‘total authoritarianism’ from the government side. They are not even giving space to the Opposition. They are trying to crush the entire Opposition’s voice,” senior Congress leader KC Venugopal said at a press conference at the party headquarters here. Talking about the recently concluded Bharat Jodo Yatra-led by its former party chief and MP Rahul Gandhi, Venugopal said, “We raised (during the yatra) the price rise, unemployment, and the clear-cut ‘divisive’ agenda of the BJP government. We demonstrated that India’s voice is totally against the attitude of this government. “The Yatra has given a clear cut direction to Congress workers how to take up the current important issues to the public domain, he added.
Apprising about the party’s upcoming 85th Plenary Session, Venugopal , who is also Congress’ general secretary in-charge of Organisation, informed that around 15,000 delegates will attend the the three-day session in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, starting from February 24. “On February 24, the Plenary Session will start with the Steering Committee meeting . The panel will take up the solution finalised by the ‘Drafting Committee’ and given an approval on the same,” he said. On the same day, Subject Committee of the Plenary will meet to approve this various solutions. On February 25 morning, the actual Plenary will start, Venugopal, the senior leader added. “The 85th Plenary Session shall ‘cement’ the deliberations held in Udaipur ‘Chintan Shivir’ (in 2022). This will be an important ‘milestone’ to the journey towards 2024 Parliament elections,” Venugopal said.This session is a clear extension of party’s Udaipur ‘Chintan Shivir’, he added. The Congress constituted a ‘Drafting Committee ‘ and several ‘subgroups’ on various issues for the Plenary session. The subgroups constituted on several issues include political affairs, economic affairs, international affairs, and farmers agriculture.