New Delhi, September 29, 2026 — Inside a Congress Working Committee session in the capital, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu sat alongside the party's most senior leadership and came away with a pointed message: India's electoral process demands scrutiny, and the party's fight to defend the Constitution is far from over.

Sukhu described the meeting as a serious deliberation on the protection of democracy and the Constitution — 'लोकतंत्र और संविधान की रक्षा को लेकर गंभीर चर्चा' ('a serious discussion on safeguarding democracy and the Constitution'). Present at the table were CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, National President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and General Secretary and Member of Parliament Priyanka Gandhi, along with other senior party figures.

What the CWC chamber heard on September 29

The Chief Minister's account of the meeting centred on one core anxiety: whether every voter in India can truly trust their vote. 'Every voter must have faith in their vote, and must have the full right to choose as they wish — this is our shared responsibility,' Sukhu wrote, summarising the tenor of discussions. It is a framing the Congress has returned to repeatedly since 2014 — positioning itself as the constitutional bulwark against what it describes as institutional erosion.

Sukhu went further, stressing that the questions being raised across the country about the electoral process must be taken seriously. The Congress has raised concerns about electronic voting machine integrity and campaign finance transparency in multiple parliamentary sessions. Tuesday's CWC meeting, by Sukhu's account, treated those concerns not as routine opposition talking points but as urgent democratic imperatives.

Congress's long-running constitutional defence narrative

The Congress Working Committee has convened several such sessions over the past few years specifically to address perceived threats to democratic institutions — including a notable session in 2023 that foregrounded constitutional values. The gathering on September 29 fits squarely within that lineage: a high-table meeting that doubles as a public statement of intent.

For Sukhu, who leads the party government in Himachal Pradesh, the optics of sitting beside Sonia Gandhi, Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi at the same table carry weight beyond party housekeeping. State chief ministers attending CWC deliberations signals that the electoral-reform conversation is no longer confined to Delhi corridors — it is a concern the party wants its governments in the states to own and amplify.

Sukhu closed with a declaration that reads almost as a party manifesto line: 'Nothing is greater than the rights of the people and their trust.' With future CWC and INDIA bloc meetings likely to translate that sentiment into specific electoral reform demands, the question now is whether that conviction finds a legislative vehicle — or remains a rallying cry.