New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday urged the party cadre to help develop leadership at the grassroots level and not fight among each other.

Inaugurating the party’s national workshop on the ‘Leadership Development Mission’ for the SC, ST, OBC and the minorities wings at the Congress headquarters here, he called for making it successful and sought support from all levels.

Urging party leaders and workers to think about the party’s future, Kharge cited his own example and said he gave party tickets to even those who helped the BJP defeat him in the Lok Sabha elections as he wanted the Congress to succeed.

“We have to promote leadership development. But that does not mean you start fighting with local leadership and complain against them. You have to work in coordination with the local leadership,” he told party workers at the workshop.

“You should not fight among yourselves. You should all support them. Most people try to target and try to pull down new leaders,” he noted.

Kharge said the ‘Leadership Development Mission’ was announced at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir of the party.

“We are constantly pushing to strengthen the organisation. Unless you are strong, stand on your own feet or instil self-respect in yourself, you cannot move forward,” he told the party cadre.

Kharge claimed that he gave party tickets for the Karnataka elections to several political leaders who helped the BJP against him in the Lok Sabha polls, saying “I still helped give tickets to all those people who defeated me so that no votes are cut, and I should not be defeated again.” “I told them that they did not support me, but I still supported them as I wanted the Congress to win and come to power,” the Congress president said.

He said the main purpose of the Congress was to save democracy and the Constitution. “The Constitution is our oxygen and democracy is our future,” Kharge added.

Addressing party leaders, he said they might have felt frustrated for not getting anything “but you will get. It has happened to us too”.

Urging them to carry forward the Congress’ mission of social justice in the country, Kharge said people working on the ground are those who help the party and “we should all work together to take this flagship programme forward”.

He also called upon the SC, ST, OBC and the minorities wings of the party to work together in coordination with the state Congress units to promote leadership at the grassroots level.

Local leadership should be developed in every assembly seat and coordinators have been appointed for this in each assembly and parliamentary constituency, Kharge said, adding that he hoped grassroots workers will be given an opportunity to become leaders.

“Our party is alive for 134 years only because we developed the party cadre. I hope to get your support in making this mission successful,” he said, citing former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who promoted such leadership.

The Congress president said the Leadership Development Mission was part of the decisions of the Udaipur declaration.

“There is a shortage of leadership among the SCs and STs. We developed such leaders who listened to top leaders or carried their bags,” he said, calling for leadership development of those workers who worked selflessly for the party.

Kharge also launched the Leadership Development Mission app to enrol party workers.

Congress leader K Raju, in-charge of the party’s SC, ST, OBC and minorities wings, said “This is not to select candidates but to promote leadership at the ground level and promote such people who work at the grassroots.”