Congress Core Group meet begins, Mission 2019, UP on agenda

New Delhi [India], Jan 15 (ANI): The Congress Core Group's meeting begins here at 15, Gurdwara Rakabganj Road.
The meeting is likely to discuss among other things Mission 2019 Lok Sabha poll and the situation arising out of the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh where 80 seats are at stake.
Congress Core Group consists of party president Rahul Gandhi, former Defence Minister AK Antony, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, General Secretary KC Venugopal, General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, and others.
Sources have told ANI that the issues related to a possible alliance, poll strategy, and organisational structure will come up for discussion during the meeting.
"The discussion will also take place on how to strengthen the party at the booth level, galvanising the party cadres for the Lok Sabha polls, strategy for retaining the edge in the states where the party won recently held Assembly polls," they said.
Sources said the main focus of the meeting would be Uttar Pradesh, where the SP-BSP has ditched the Congress instead of forging a grand alliance with the grand old party.
The two regional parties, which announced their alliance on Saturday, have left two seats for the Congress-Amethi and Rae Bareli. "For the last four days, senior party leaders have been working out the plan for UP battle," added sources.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has already said that his party would fight with "full force" in Uttar Pradesh to defeat the BJP and its ally-Apna Dal, which had won 73 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The party's UP affairs in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad has also spoken about an extensive campaign plan for the state and over a dozen rallies are expected to be addressed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in February. (ANI)