To Udaipur by train for ‘Chintan Shivir’ — Congress’ plan for Rahul Gandhi & senior leaders
Politics

To Udaipur by train for ‘Chintan Shivir’ — Congress’ plan for Rahul Gandhi & senior leaders

Proposal was floated at Monday's CWC meeting, and members agreed that it would be ‘good optics’ before the brainstorming session in Udaipur from 13 to 15 May.

   
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi at the CWC meeting in New Delhi Monday | ANI/Rahul Singh

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi at the CWC meeting in New Delhi Monday | ANI/Rahul Singh

New Delhi: For the sake of “good optics”, the Congress is contemplating a proposal for Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders to travel to Rajasthan’s Udaipur by train for the party’s mega ‘Chintan Shivir’ (brainstorming session), scheduled for 13-15 May.

The proposal was floated at a Monday meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, ThePrint has learnt. 

According to a CWC member who attended the meeting, members of the committee were asked their opinion on whether this would be a good strategy. “Most members, including myself, were in agreement that it would be a good move and also good optics as the Shivir begins,” he told ThePrint.

Another source in the party said they were considering having Rahul and other senior leaders board an evening train from Delhi to Udaipur on 12 May. They will likely reach Udaipur on the morning of 13 May, the day the brainstorming session is scheduled to begin.

“All members of the CWC may go along with him, or it might be a select group of leaders. The details are being worked out. But unless something goes wrong procedurally, it will most likely happen. We are looking to book at least two coaches on the train,” the source further said.

The Monday CWC meeting was held to discuss the agenda for the 13-15 May session and various issues that the party will deliberate upon there, including a plan to revive the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Proposals by six coordination panels that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had formed earlier were tabled at the meeting.

While delivering opening remarks at the CWC, Sonia said there are “no magic wands” and it is “only with selfless work, discipline and a sense of collective purpose” that the party can come out of its slump.

“The party has been central to the life of each and every one of us. It has expected our total allegiance and has been good to each and everyone of us. Now when we are at a crucial juncture, it is imperative that we step forward and repay our debt to the party in full measure” she added.

Ever since the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the February-March state assembly elections, the clamour for an organisational overhaul has been growing in the party. Leaders of the G-23 (now G-21), a dissident group of senior party leaders, had also raised their pitch, demanding changes and more transparency. Interestingly, six members of this group were made part of the coordination panels for the ‘Chintan Shivir’.


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‘50 under 50’

Speaking to the press after the CWC meet, Congress’ communication in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that approximately 50 per cent of the 422 delegates attending the meeting were below the age of 50 years, and of this 50 per cent, 30-35 per cent were below the age of 40 years.

“We thus have a good mix of youth and experience,” he added.

Surjewala also delineated who all were invited for the 13-15 May ‘Chintan Shivir’ — all members of the CWC, heads of state units, party MLAs, MPs, former Union cabinet ministers and ministers in-charge, all national office-bearers of the women’s wing, as well as members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the party’s student wing. That apart, 50 people who are either part of the coordination committees, or specially chosen by the Congress president, were also invited. 

The CWC member quoted earlier also said that certain “actionable points” were made by the panels that submitted their proposals.

“Mukul Wasnik (convenor of the organisation panel and G-23 member) proposed more elected posts with tenures of five years and the principle of one post for one family. Wasnik also put forth the group’s long-standing demand of reviving the party’s parliamentary board,” the member said.

“As head of the panel of social justice, Salman Khurshid proposed that the party push for OBC quotas in Parliament and in legislative assemblies. He also suggested internal quotas within the party for OBCs, including during ticket distribution,” he detailed.

“P. Chidambaram (head of the economy panel) pointed out that the BJP government was spending 10 per cent less from its revenue on welfare schemes as opposed to the last Congress government.”

He further said that while the political panel, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, discussed India’s issues with its neighbours like China, the panel on youth led by Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring pushed for reservation in the organisation for those under 50 years of age. The panel on agriculture, led by former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda, spoke about MSP support for farmers.

“Each group has nine members and they have been meeting over the last few days to shortlist the broad issues. We are going to Udaipur not to draft a manifesto, we are going to Udaipur to prepare an action plan to strengthen and revive the Congress party,” MP Jairam Ramesh, another G-23 member, told reporters at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi.

“The fact that we are holding the Chintan Shivir is a powerful signal that the Congress president means business. This is not a ritual. This is a milestone in this long journey,” he added.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)


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