Congress gears up for nationwide ‘Save MNREGA’ campaign

The Congress has set in motion a sweeping nationwide campaign to challenge what it describes as the steady dilution of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), gearing up for one of its largest grassroots mobilisations in recent years.

The party plans mass protests across multiple states and aims to rally more than 2.5 lakh gram sabhas to pass resolutions demanding the restoration of the original right-to-work framework enshrined in the landmark law.

As part of the agitation, statewide protests are set to begin on Saturday in several states, including Uttarakhand and Bihar, marking the opening phase of a sustained political offensive against what the Congress calls an erosion of rural employment guarantees.

Party leaders allege that the Centre has weakened the spirit of MGNREGA by curtailing the powers of gram panchayats, particularly their authority to decide the nature of works and allocate employment. According to the Congress, these changes strike at the heart of the Act’s promise — providing rural households a legally enforceable right to demand work when livelihoods are under strain.

In Uttarakhand, the Congress has announced a statewide agitation against what it terms the replacement of MNREGA with the Viksit Bharat G Ram G Rural Act. The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee, chaired by Uttarakhand Congress incharge Kumari Selja, held at a hotel on Rajpur Road in Dehradun.

On 10 January, the party will hold district-level press conferences across the state to spell out the implications of the new framework and draw contrasts with the employment protections offered under MNREGA. Congress leaders warn that the changes could deepen rural distress and weaken decentralised governance structures.

In Bihar, the party is preparing to launch a ‘Save MNREGA’ campaign, targeting what it calls the Modi government’s anti-MGNREGA policies. Party workers will fan out from village to village, engaging directly with rural communities to raise awareness and mobilise support.

Leaders said the campaign would combine grassroots outreach with legislative pressure, with the Congress prepared to carry the issue from the streets to the floor of state Assemblies.

According to party insiders, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has directed all state units to take the agitation deep into the countryside. A central plank of the campaign is to ensure that over 2.5 lakh gram sabhas across the country adopt resolutions calling for the reinstatement of MNREGA’s original provisions.

The nationwide push formally gathered momentum on Friday with the launch of the ‘MNREGA Bachao Sangram’ in Jammu. The programme was led by AICC general secretary and Jammu and Kashmir incharge MP Dr Syed Naseer Hussain, along with Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Hameed Karra.

Held at the Kashmir Hills Resort in Jammu, the event drew senior party leaders, sitting and former legislators, ex-ministers, district presidents, office-bearers of frontal organisations, block-level leaders and party workers — underscoring the Congress’s resolve to mount a sustained, nationwide protest to safeguard the rural employment guarantee law.

With IANS inputs