Congress to hold public rally to commemorate 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s party presidency

BENGALURU: Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge on Sunday said that Congress was gearing up to organise a public rally under the slogan ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ on January 21 to commemorate 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi becoming the party president.

“Since we could not do it as a mark of respect for Dr (Manmohan) Singh. We postponed it (the public rally) and that’s happening on January 21,” Kharge told ANI.

He said that the program to commemorate 100 years of Gandhi’s presidency was postponed due to the demise of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and was being organised on January 21. Kharge added that the public rally was being carried out to send a message to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the centre.

Taking a dig at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Karnataka Minister said that no “misinterpretation” or “deviation” from Babasaheb Ambedkar’s constitution will be tolerated.

#WATCH | Bengaluru: Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge says, “The previous program of Gandhi Ji’s presidency that marked 100 years was postponed due to the demise of our former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. We had to postpone the public rally ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai… pic.twitter.com/YTfi0lbjR6

— ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2025

“The previous program of Gandhi Ji’s presidency that marked 100 years was postponed due to the demise of our former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. We had to postpone the public rally ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ which was to send a strong message to the central government that we will not tolerate any deviation from Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s constitution or any misinterpretation by the BJP, especially Amit Shah. You heard what he said in the Parliament about Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Kharge, who is the rural development minister of Karnataka, said.

Earlier, Kharge in his meeting with the Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday made key submissions and requests for guidelines relaxations and approvals under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

The submissions included the proposal for the construction of compound walls for Angwanwadi and government buildings, restructuring of the permissible works list under MGNREGA to include essential maintenance tasks, an increase in the current MGNREGA person-day limit from 100 to 150 days and a request for the government of India to cover 50 per cent of the five year- operation and maintenance costs.

Meanwhile, Chouhan held a discussion with Karnataka Agriculture Minister Chaluvaryaswamy regarding the development of the state’s agricultural sector here on Saturday. Chouhan told ANI that the State had asked for more Central funds for mechanisation schemes in the agricultural sector. (ANI)