Gurugram: In an organisational restructuring aimed at consolidating its grassroots cadre, the Congress party plans to add a new “Sector” layer between Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and Mandal units in Haryana.
The move was discussed at a day-long orientation programme for Haryana and Madhya Pradesh district presidents at Indira Bhawan in Delhi Sunday. The session was attended by 32 district presidents from Haryana and 71 from Madhya Pradesh.
The party already has a Sector-level tier in its organisational structure in Madhya Pradesh.
According to multiple district presidents that The Print spoke to, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, highlighted the importance of strong grassroots mobilisation to fight “systemic assaults on democracy”.
A district president from Haryana said that training in-charge Sachin Rao and communication strategy head Sasikanth Senthil informed participants about the party’s vision to reorganise its organisational hierarchy.
“We were informed that the new ‘Sector’ tier will be responsible for around 15 BLAs, seeking to fill the gap between booth-level functioning and Mandal units. A Mandal unit will be over eight Sectors, and a Block over five to six Mandals. All blocks in a district will come under the district unit,” the leader said.
Jyoti Mishra, assistant professor of political science at Amity University in Mohali, said that the Congress seemed to be taking a leaf out of the playbook of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which already has a multi-layered organisational structure at the grassroot level.
She said that the Congress seemed to have learnt a lesson from its defeat at the hands of the BJP in the 2024 Assembly elections.
“The Congress lost the elections when all pollsters were predicting its victory and the party had won five out of 10 Lok Sabha seats a few months back with a lead in 46 out of 90 assembly segments. The party didn’t have any organisation for the past 11 years. A good organisation at the grassroots could have easily covered the gap by ensuring increased polling by its supporters on the polling day,” Mishra added.
The BJP’s multi-tiered grassroots structure consists of Booth-Level Panna Pramukhs, Shakti Kendra Pramukhs, local committees, and Mandal-level and district-level committees.
The Congress district president quoted above also said that the presidents have been given a 30-day plan, which includes opening district offices in the first 10 days, meeting with frontal organisations, initiating already existing BLAs, and selecting appropriate candidates for block units.
“Our BLAs will consist of five members, with one each from Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and women,” the president said, highlighting the party’s emphasis on inclusive representation.
Another district president told ThePrint that they were told to remain loyal to the party over any factional leaders within the state. “We were told that allegiance to one or the other top leaders of the state is natural and it’s okay to. But when we function as the party’s head in our units, we are supposed to work with our loyalty towards the party and treat all equally, irrespective of the factions they come from,” he added.
During his speech, Gandhi challenged district teams to make “discipline, data and dialogue” priorities to build a strong base for the party. He highlighted the need to do monthly committee reviews, reinforcing booth-level infrastructure, and pushing back against disinformation through grassroots outreach.
“This isn’t all about elections,” Gandhi is said to have stated. “It’s about safeguarding the soul of our democracy—one booth, one voter, one truth at a time.”
Gandhi’s remarks align with the Congress party’s broader “Voter Adhikar Yatra” campaign, which seeks to address alleged irregularities in voter rolls and demand greater transparency from the Election Commission.
On its X account @INCIndia, the Congress posted: “LoP Shri @RahulGandhi addressed a DCC Presidents’ Training Programme – ‘Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan’ – for the states of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Organised at Indira Bhawan, the programme saw the participation of several senior Congress leaders.”
Other senior leaders who attended were Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, Sachin Rao, Sasikanth Senthil, Haryana In-charge B.K. Hariprasad, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President Udai Bhan, Madhya Pradesh Congress Chief Jeetu Patwari, Madhya Pradesh Incharge Harish Chaudhary and Madhya Pradesh Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge posted excerpts of his address to district presidents on his X.
“The Congress Party was able to govern the country for a long time because of its strong organisation. For ministers, it used to be essential that whenever they visited a district, they first contacted the District President and went to the district office,” Kharge said in his message.
“Over time, there was a change in this tradition. Ministers began appointing their favourites as District Presidents, ignoring merit and ideology. Rahul ji and I have realised that without strengthening our organisation, without giving importance to the District Presidents, we cannot firmly return to power.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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