Congress forms panel to plan protests on national issues

A statement issued by the party said the Congress president has constituted the nine-member panel with Digvijaya Singh as its chairman with immediate effect to “plan sustained agitations on national issues”.

Ahead of elections in several states, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday set up a nine-member panel of party leaders headed by Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh to plan “sustained agitations on national issues”.

West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress supporters stage a protest against price hike of LPG cylinder, in Kolkata, on Thursday. (Samir Jana/HT photo)

Besides Singh, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, MPs Uttam Reddy and Ripun Bora, dalit leader Udit Raj, who switched over to the party from the Bharatiya Janata Party last year, and party leaders Manish Chatratha, Zuber Khan and BK Hariprasad were named as members of the panel.

A statement issued by the party said the Congress president has constituted the nine-member panel with Singh as its chairman with immediate effect to “plan sustained agitations on national issues”.

The formation of the committee came days after the Congress, along with 18 other Opposition parties, announced to hold nationwide protests from September 20 to 30.

The party has been attacking the Centre over several economic issues such as rise in fuel and LPG prices, farm laws and most recently, the national monetisation pipeline announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month.