Congress marks 140th Foundation Day with quiet reflection at Indira Bhawan

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday marked its 140th foundation day at its new headquarters, Indira Bhawan, with party leaders using the occasion to invoke the organisation’s legacy and reiterate its pitch of safeguarding constitutional values.

The celebrations at the AICC headquarters on Kotla Marg came less than a year after the party shifted base from 24, Akbar Road to Indira Bhawan, a project that ran into long delays before it was inaugurated in January 2025. 

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were among the senior leaders who attended the programme at the new premises on Saturday, where the party has been positioning the building as both a modern workplace and a curated timeline of its political journey. 

The headquarters, at 9A Kotla Marg, was conceived as a long-term replacement for the Akbar Road office and was built over roughly 15 years, with several reports flagging delays and cost escalation during the period. 

Congress sources have described Indira Bhawan as a walk-through archive, with photographs, quotes and artwork across floors intended to reflect key phases of the party’s role in the freedom movement and in post-Independence institution-building. 

In messages issued on the foundation day, leaders underlined the party’s commitment to the Constitution, secularism and social justice, while also using the moment to frame the Congress as a defender of democratic institutions from the opposition benches.

The party’s internal meetings on Sunday also turned the focus to upcoming political mobilisation. After a Congress Working Committee meeting, Kharge announced that the party will launch a nationwide “MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan” from January 5, 2026, signalling that the employment guarantee scheme will be a central plank of its next outreach cycle. 

The Congress was founded on December 28, 1885, in Bombay, initially as a platform for political dialogue among Indians under colonial rule. Over the decades, it became the principal force in the national movement, led at different points by figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, before dominating Indian politics for much of the post-Independence period.

Party leaders on Sunday projected the 140-year milestone as a reminder of what they called the Congress’ role in shaping modern India’s democratic framework, even as the organisation continues to rebuild its national footprint after successive electoral setbacks.

Indira Bhawan’s inauguration itself was projected by the party as a symbolic reset, with the Congress leadership arguing the new address would serve as a hub for organisational activity and a marker of continuity at a time when it is seeking to sharpen its political messaging nationally.