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Many state units in bad shape, Congress secretaries to brainstorm revival plan on Friday
The meeting with the party’s mid-rung leadership will be held at the party’s headquarters at Akbar Road, the first such meeting with Venugopal after he took charge.
Congress general secretary organisation KC Venugopal has called a meeting of the party’s secretaries on Friday, a day after interim president Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to meet with senior party leaders including the general secretaries, state in-charges, chief ministers and CLP leaders.
The meeting with the party’s mid-rung leadership will be held at the party’s headquarters at Akbar Road, the first such meeting with Venugopal after he took charge. This will also be the first meeting of secretaries after former president Rahul Gandhi stepped down.
Party leaders said that the key reason behind the meeting is to involve the secretaries in strengthening the state units. “There are several states where the party units are in doldrums. Secretaries are out in the field and they can speak about what needs to be done to help build the party,” said a party leader associated with the decision to convene Friday’s meeting.
During the meeting, Venugopal is also expected to speak to them about their individual issues and rope them in to expand the Congress’ membership drive.
The party has 65 secretaries currently, engaged across the country as state in-charges or part of the organisational unit, training, administration, Mahila Congress, and the party’s Civic and Social Outreach unit.
Former president Rahul Gandhi had inducted young leaders as party secretaries to bring some visibility to their role. But after his exit, they have not been part of any organisational conversation.
In his initial brief to the 65 secretaries, Gandhi had asked them to ensure that they spend 20 days in a month in their assigned states.
In July this year, a month after Gandhi stepped down from his position taking responsibility for the Congress bagging only 52 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, one of the secretaries voiced his fears of the possibility of the secretaries being sidelined. He had also suggested that secretaries should be called for individual meetings.
