Sonia Gandhi will meet Congress leaders to chalk out a strategy to back the farmers.
Senior Congress leaders today met to discuss the farmers' agitation, especially in the wake of the stalemate even after an eighth round of talks between the protesters and the government. The virtual meet of party general secretaries and various state in-charges was meant to chalk out a strategy to back the thousands who have aggregated along Delhi's borders seeking the repeal of three new agricultural laws passed by Parliament in September 2020, according to party sources.
The national party has already declared its support for the agitation. In the last such meeting, the party had decided to get the signatures of farmers across the country against the three farm laws and had later submitted over two crore signatures to the President late last month.
Today's meeting was chaired by party's General Secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal. While party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, didn't attend today's meeting, Priyanka Gandhi, who is one of the General Secretaries, was present.
Earlier, Ms Gandhi had dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government the "most egoistic" that independent India had seen and demanded that it perform its "Raj Dharma" by withdrawing the new laws.
The Congress now plans to go aggressive against the Centre and will hit the ground, an ANI report said citing sources. On Friday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that nothing short of a repeal of the three pieces of legislation was acceptable.
The eighth round of talks between the Centre and farmer leaders held on Friday failed to break a weeks-long deadlock with the parties remaining divided on two key issues: the repeal of the laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support price.
The next round of talks will take place on January 15, less than two weeks before the farmers take out a tractor rally - on Republic Day - to enter Delhi.
The three contentious laws are Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.