Cong launches 45-day nation-wide stir to protect MGNREGA

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday launched its 45-day nationwide campaign — MGNREGA Bachao Sangram — against the repeal of the UPA-era rural employment law by holding press conferences at every district. The opposition party’s agitation demanding the withdrawal of the VB-G RAM G Act and restoration of MGNREGA as a rights-based law in its original form, the right to work, and the authority of panchayats, will continue till February 25.

Press conferences were held at all district headquarters on Saturday, highlighting the manner in which MGNREGA was repealed and replaced by the VB-G RAM G Act in the Winter Session of Parliament. This will be followed by a day-long fast and symbolic protests at the district headquarters on January 11. “Today, the Indian National Congress is launching the MGNREGA Bachao Sangram with a press conference at each of the District Congress Committee offices across the country.

“The Congress is committed to seeing this struggle through until we secure the restoration of the right to work, livelihood, and accountability that the (Narendra) Modi Government has snatched with its bulldozer demolition of the MGNREGA,” party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X. From January 12 to 29, chaupals and mass contact programmes will be organised at all gram panchayats, followed by ward-level peaceful sit-ins on January 30 to press for the right to work.

From February 7 to 15, state-level gheraos of Vidhan Sabhas will be organised, while four major rallies will be held between February 16 and 25 before the culmination of the nationwide movement, the party programme said. The Congress has said it demands the complete withdrawal of the VB-G RAM G law and restoration of MGNREGA. The opposition party has said that while the agitation against the now-repealed black farm laws was Delhi-centric, the MGNREGA Bachao Sangram will be panchayat, block, district and state-centric.

The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, was passed with a voice vote amid protests in the Rajya Sabha on December 18, 2025, hours after the Lok Sabha cleared it. On December 21, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Bill, making it an Act, guaranteeing 125 days of wage employment per rural household every financial year.