E-Paper
Congress sets up expert panel to address political challenges
The members of this empowered group will be announced shortly, Surjewala said, and they will address the “political challenges” that lie ahead of the general elections.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has formed an empowered action group to factor in suggestions presented by strategist Prashant Kishor to overhaul the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Monday.
The members of this empowered group will be announced shortly, Surjewala said, and they will address the “political challenges” that lie ahead of the general elections.
The development came in the backdrop of news reports that the election consultancy firm I-Pac that Kishor founded has tied up with Telengana’s TRS government over the weekend. After the West Bengal elections last year, Kishor maintained that he would no longer be involved with I-Pac’s work. However, the tie-up with TRS came after Kishor spent two days in Hyderabad. When asked on Monday, Surjewala avoided commenting on whether this was a conflict in the light of Kishor’s proposal to not just work with the Congress party but also join it.
“As you know, an eight-member committee had gone through Prashant Kishor’s proposals and submitted a report on Thursday. Today, she held a meeting and based on the discussions, the Congress president has decided to constitute an empowered action group,” Surjewala said, adding, “I will be happy to tell you its constitution and its membership. You will then get an answer that who is and who is not a member of the empowered action group. As of today, these are two important ways forward -- these are two important ways to restructure, rethink, recalibrate our strategy in the state elections as also in the run-up to 2024. I would not like to comment for the time being on any other action.’’
The members of the committee that evaluated Kishor’s suggestions and submitted a report included KC Venugopal, Digvijaya Singh, Ambika Soni, Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who are likely to meet again on Tuesday.
One senior leader told HT that the induction of Kishor was now more or less certain. There is likely to be a final meeting between Gandhi and Kishor. When contacted by HT, Kishor said he had nothing to say about the new empowered group.
Surjewala gave details of an upcoming three-day meeting of the party that would analyse the reasons behind the Congress’s electoral defeat in five states. The three-day brainstorming session is slated to be held in Udaipur on May 13.
“The focus of the deliberations will be on the current political, social and economic situation as also the challenges they pose to our society and the nation. Issues relating to the welfare and well-being and the trampling upon of the rights of the schedule castes, schedule tribes, backward classes, minorities, kisans and khet mazdoors, religious and linguistic minorities, women, social justice and empowerment, empowerment of the young will all be deliberated upon at the Nav Sankalp Shivir,” he said.
The party later released a statement that announced six groups were formed to look into each of these sectors. The conveners for these committees are leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge (political), former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid (social justice and empowerment), former finance minister P Chidambaram (economy), general secretary Mukul Wasnik (organisation), former chief minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda (farmers and agriculture) and Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Warring (youth and empowerment). Each committee has nine members.
