From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Instead of an alternative of late Ahmed Patel who was a political advisor of the Congress president for a long time, Sonia Gandhi has decided to form a new group of advisors from among the Congress Working Committee (CWC) members to assist her in running the party’s day-to-day affairs.
She also rejected the revival of the Parliamentary Board and announced to set up a task force soon to implement the suggestions on the organisation.
In her concluding remarks at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir on Sunday, she announced the decision to work with the help of the advisory group. “I have also decided to have an advisory group drawn from the cWC that would meet regularly to deliberate upon the political issues and challenges before our party. The new group will not be a collective decision-making body, but it will help me to get the benefit of the vast experience of senior colleagues,” she elaborated.
Sonia also said: “A compact task force will be set up to drive the process of internal reforms that are essential and that were discussed in different groups in Udaipur. These reforms will focus on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to cover all aspects of the organisation including structure, rules for appointment to the party posts, communications and publicity, outreach, finances and election management. The composition of the task force will be notified in the next 2-3 days.”
She also promised to fill up all the vacant party posts with three to six months. Three new departments were also announced in Udaipur — public insight department, national training institute in Kerala and an independent election management department.
Sonia also amended the proposal of only one ticket to a family by stating that those who have worked for five years in the party can seek a ticket. How can the party deny tickets to sons of Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, former general secretary Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath who are active in politics for long. The CWC accepted the Chintan Shivir’s recommendations that the office-bearers have a term of maximum five years.
The demand for 50% reservations to SC, ST, OBC and minorities in the organisation was turned down, though the CWC in principle endorsed greater representation to these groups.
