Sonia Gandhi asks Congress CMs to implement poll promises

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday asked chief ministers of states ruled by the party to try and implement promises made in the manifestos in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

Mrs Gandhi, who met the chief ministers of five Congress-ruled states, also said that in the prevailing “socio-economic and political crisis in the country, perpetrated single-handedly by the BJP governments at the Centre and in various states”, the states ruled by the Congress are not only the standing safe sanctuaries of democracy, people-centric governance and economic remonetisation, but also the strongest bulwark against the BJP.

The meeting, which was also attended by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former de-fence minister A.K. Antony, general secretary in-charge K.C. Venugopal and Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel, also discussed the concrete and outstanding achievements of the respective state governments even in the face of constant destabilizing efforts on part of the BJP, were enumerated and discussed.

She also stressed the need to put into place an effective coordination between party organisations and the governments in these states so as to ensure that they are working in tandem and that all the programmes of the government and commitment of the party could to taken seamlessly to the people.

Sources said that she asked the respective state governments to assign duties on a regular basis to ministers on a roster basis.

Mrs Gandhi earlier in the day met the Congress leaders from the Northe-ast. “At the meeting, it was decided to strengthen and consolidate the North Eastern Coordination Committee and to establish its permanent office at Guwahati. The committee has decided to hold at least one meeting every three months so that all leaders can meet, discuss their problems and take decisions expeditiously,” the president of Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee Pradyot Manikya said.

Another senior leader said that Mrs Gandhi asked that the problems of a large number of “genuine citizens” who have been left out of NRC list be underlined, and blamed the BJP for deliberately botching up the whole exercise by politicising the issue.

“The Citizenship Amendment Bill was also discussed, which, despite having been summarily rejected by the Rajya Sabha, is again being stoked by BJP leaders,” he said.