From addressing the core members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) during the day to symbolically lighting the candles with the Opposition in a display of unity at Jantar Mantar in the evening, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had a packed day on Saturday.

The signs were clear — Congress has begun its groundwork  for the 2019 General Election in earnest to counter the Narendra Modi behemoth.

“I would like that we institutionalise a meeting of the working committee, maybe once every two months and we just close the date. And, every two months automatically, the working committee meets so that we can hear what you want to say and what the nation is feeling,” Rahul had said.

Besides, issues of alleged corruption in the Rafale deal, banking frauds and growing unemployment as well as entering alliances with non-BJP ‘like-minded parties’ from the Opposition block was the key area of discussion.

“Modi won’t have second chance in office, if Congress gets its alliance game right,” asserted top party sources on Friday.

Rahul conveyed the same message on Saturday evening by joining Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and other leaders from Opposition parties including CPI and CPM at Jantar Mantar.

“Congress has a natural alliance with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar and today while standing by Tejashwi Yadav and other Opposition leaders, the Congress has made its role clear on getting alliance partners together against the NDA government,” a senior Congress leader said.

Prior to it, Congress had announced that party president Rahul Gandhi would be its prime ministerial candidate.

It seems the Congress president doesn’t want to lose any opportunity unlike in the past, when he was known to be as an ‘absentee leader’.

“It was decided on how to narrate the issues of corruption like the Rafale deal, banking frauds, unemployment amongst youth, agrarian distress, rise in lynching cases, atrocities against Dalits and minorities, etc, in the days to come and amplify their effect,” a member present in the CWC meeting told Firstpost.

Congress party wants to build a mass agitation on the issues of falling economy, unemployment and farmers’ distress, by raking these both inside and outside the Parliament. Senior party leaders will chalk out a blueprint along with Congress general secretaries and members of the state and district units.

“The Congress president wants our party workers and leaders to take up these issues outside the Parliament at all levels, whereas our MPs would raise them from the floor of the Parliament. We will compel government to respond,” said AICC communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala.