The Congress might have announced its plan to aggressively take on the National Democratic Alliance government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on burning issues such as the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), but its own house did not look at ease as grey clouds over a structural revamp hovered above the final Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting of 2025 which took place in Delhi on Saturday (December 27).
The uneasiness was felt as the party was set to witness 140 years since its foundation, on Sunday (December 28).
Digvijaya Singh’s social media posts
One of the episodes that made questions raised on the Grand-Old Party’s internal state of affairs pertinent was centred on veteran leader Digvijaya Singh. The Rajya Sabha MP triggered a row earlier in the day by appearing to praise the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ideological mentor, with a social media post.
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Posting an old black-and-white photograph (Digvijaya said he got it on the Quora site) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting near the feet of former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani on the floor on X, he said the way grassroots workers of the RSS and BJP and Jan Sangh, its predecessor, go on to become the chief minister and prime minister, it shows the power of organisation.
The photograph is from the 1990s documenting the rise of PM Modi in Gujarat’s politics. It was reportedly clicked during the swearing-in ceremony of former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela in 1996, attended by top BJP leaders of the time.
The 78-year-old leader later clarified his words on the RSS and BJP, saying he remained their “staunch opponent”, but his post was seen as a message to the party high command. He tagged in the post Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, MP Jairam Ramesh, Congress itself, the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, and even PM Modi and the BJP.
A week after Digvijaya says ‘difficult’ to convince Rahul
His latest act comes a week after the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh penned another post on X in which he said the Congress, like the Election Commission, also requires reforms.
In that post, which he pinned on his X handle, Digvijaya tagged Rahul, Priyanka, Kharge, Ramesh, MLA son Jaivardhan Singh and the Congress. He addressed Rahul in the post, saying that while the latter did well in raising matters of socio-economic importance, the party itself needed more attention in terms of “pragmatic decentralised functioning”.
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Digvijay also said while he knew Rahul is capable of doing it (as he has stressed on Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan to make grassroots networks stronger), the challenge lies in convincing him, which he said is “not easy”.
“Rahul Gandhi ji, you are absolutely “Bang On” in matters of Socio-Economic Issues. Full Marks. But now please look at @INCIndia also. Like @ECISVEEP needs Reforms, So Does Indian National Congress. You have started with “organisation creation” But we need more Pragmatic Decentralised Functioning. I am sure you would do it because I know you can do it. Only problem is that it is not easy to “Convince” you,” the pinned post read.
Digvijaya’s posts, which ruffled feathers at the meeting, come ahead of the conclusion of his second stint as a Rajya Sabha MP early next year, with a third term appearing unlikely. Senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Meenakshi Natarajan are in contention for a berth in the Upper House. In Madhya Pradesh, too, state Congress chief Jitu Patwari and the Opposition leader in the Assembly and the Congress Legislative Party leader, Umang Singhar, are known to be against the veteran.
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With the party facing internal rifts in various states of the country and in diverse forms, its supporters would be keen to know how it handles them and put up a united fight in five key state/Union Territory elections coming up in 2026. Deliberating on the strategy in these elections was also part of the CWC meeting’s agenda.
Congress focuses on MGNREGA protest
However, the Congress focused on taking the fight to the government on the issue of MGNREGA as its primary political mission. Targeting the Modi-led dispensation for the first time after returning from abroad recently, Rahul said during the meeting that the decision to abolish the scheme was taken by the prime minister’s office directly, without taking the cabinet into consultation. The Opposition party will launch, as part of its resistance to the government on MGNREGA’s repeal, a countrywide protest from January 5.
Rahul flays govt: ‘MGNREGA call one-man show’
Following the meeting, Rahul told reporters at the venue, Indira Bhawan, headquarters of the All-India Congress Committee, “This decision (abolition of MNREGA) is a one-man show. It has been taken to benefit only three-four crorepatis.”
The LoP said the government’s move will hit the rural economy and benefit industrialists such as Gautam Adani in “full measure”.
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Calling MNREGA a “rights-based concept”, he said the framework ensured minimum wages for the poor people living in rural India. “MNREGA was not a scheme. It was a rights-based concept. Through MNREGA, people got minimum wages,” he added.
Rahul also said the MNREGA ensured emancipation of the country’s panchayats. He said the rural local bodies directly participated in financial matters and mattered in decision-making.
“In our three-tier system, the panchayats directly participated in finance while decision-making support was also there,” he said.
“It is an assault on Tezzbuzz structure of the states. It is a concentration of power, a concentration of finance. MNREGA allowed decision-making at the panchayat level. Poor people will be affected. It will cause tremendous pain to the weaker sections,” he added.
Fight will continue, says Kharge
Confirming the Congress’s decision to hold protests from January 5, Kharge said, despite the NITI Aayog itself accepting that assets were created through the MNREGA, the government abolished the scheme.
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“Poor people in this country are alive today due to MNREGA. They (the government) took it away. MNREGA stopped migration from villages. The people in villages, along with their small farming, also took jobs under the MNREGA scheme. This government has taken a move to hit poor people. Those people are angry, and it will take a heavy toll on the government. Like farmers who protested against farm laws, we will fight for MNREGA,” the party president said.
He also said the new framework under the VB- G RAM G Bill (Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025) that replaced the MGNREGA will put an economic burden on the states. He said the Congress will intensively protest to get the MNREGA back. “We will do this on roads and inside Parliament,” he said.
Kharge also said the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from MNREGA is an “assault” on the legacy of the ‘Father of the Nation’.
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