The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Thursday condemned the suspension of Opposition MPs from the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.

“This meeting of the CWC condemns in the strongest possible terms the suspension of 143 INDIA party MPs from both Houses of Parliament. These MPs were simply demanding that the Home Minister make a statement on the extraordinary events of December 13 in the Lok Sabha and on the role of the BJP MP from Mysuru in facilitating the entry of the two intruders who caused the serious security breach,” read the resolution passed by the grand old party’s highest decision making body.

The meeting was convened by party president Mallikarjun Kharge at the party headquarters here, in presence of Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former president Rahul Gandhi, after four hours of deliberations.

The suspension was done also to ensure that the Opposition was not present to challenge the Modi government as it “bulldozed three draconian criminal justice laws through”, it said.

It further said, “This meeting of the CWC expresses its firmest resolve to be fully prepared at the earliest to fight the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections both as a party in its own right and also as a member of the INDIA group. It reiterates the determination of the Congress to take all steps necessary to make the INDIA group an effective bulwark and force against the BJP and its allies.”

“This meeting of the CWC appreciates that preparations for the Lok Sabha polls have already commenced. The Hain Taiyyar Hum rally being held in Nagpur on our Foundation days a week from now is a very important step in this regard,” it added.

The CWC also welcomed the latest initiative to strengthen the party’s finances through broad-based public participation.

The resolution further read, “Economic inequalities are widening while prices of essential commodities continue to rise and a growing jobs famine haunts the youth. There is a vast gap between what the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) claims and what the ground realities are.”

“Social polarization is deepening and is being encouraged deliberately in a provocative manner for electoral gains. Democracy itself is under assault and all freedoms that our citizens are guaranteed under the Constitution are under attack. These are the issues at stake now,’’ it said.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Congress general secretary in charge KC venugopal apprised about the meeting.

“Under the chairmanship of Congress president Malikarjun Kharge, today we had a long CWC meeting. Around 76 leaders from all over India participated in that meeting. For four hours we discussed various issues—about the last assembly election results, the parliament elections of 2024, the current political situation in the country, including the parliament issues.”

On recently concluded Assembly polls in five states, “We won in Telangana that is a remarkable achievement for the Congress party. Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh—we lost elections , even though we expected a better result. We lost the elections, which is a disappointment for the party. But, Congress is very strong in all these three states . Our vote percentage is very intact.”

On general elections, he said, “Parliament elections candidates will be decided very soon without any delay. The screening committee is going to be constituted in this month itself. A Manifesto committee will be constituted within one two days. We have already completed meeting leaders of 23 states , and the other four states we will be doing by this month.”

Asserting that the mode of the country is against BJP, Venugopal said, “146 MPs suspended from Parliament. The intention is to give a message that only one party is eligible to rule this country. This government doesn’t want Opposition, only dictatorship. Agencies are having only one point agenda to make BJP win the elections and screw the Opposition party leaders.“