Congress holds meet over slow pace of membership drive in states

Congress general secretaries and various in-charges went into a huddle on Saturday amid reports that the party’s membership drive, the key step before the much-awaited organisational elections, showed poor rate of new enrolment in large areas of the country.

Congress general secretaries and various in-charges went into a huddle on Saturday amid reports that the party’s membership drive, the key step before the much-awaited organisational elections, showed poor rate of new enrolment in large areas of the country.

Several Congress leaders pointed out that barring a few states such as Telangana and Karnataka, the rate of enrollment proved to be ‘unsatisfactory’.

At a meeting of general secretaries and in-charges chaired by Congress general secretary K C Venugopal at the party headquarters here, several leaders pointed out that barring a few states such as Telangana and Karnataka, the rate of enrollment proved to be “unsatisfactory”, party functionaries familiar with the matter said.

At least two leaders who attended the meeting, suggested that the party’s defeat in the recent assembly elections in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa had impacted the membership drive.

“In some north Indian states, people are not very keen to join the Congress,” one of the functionaries cited above said, seeking anonymity.

Last week, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had appointed five senior leaders to analyse “the post-poll situation” and suggest organisational changes in the five states that faced assembly elections recently.

A day earlier, she ordered state unit chiefs of the above five states to resign.

The two leaders, the functionary said, also suggested the participation of popular and senior Congress leaders in the membership drive. “One in-charge argued that party veterans should be involved in the enrollment drive to influence more people,” the functionary said.