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New Congress manifesto panel has faces from diverse backgrounds
The manifesto panel is expected to interact with a large number of interest groups, party workers and organisations in the next few months
The Congress party has constituted a slightly smaller manifesto committee for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls compared to 2019, but added new voices from a more diverse background.
The manifesto panel, announced on Friday, is expected to interact with a large number of interest groups, party workers and organisations in the next few months before it comes out with what the Congress is set to offer to the voters in the run up to the 2023 Lok Sabha election.
In 2019, the Congress party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi constituted a 19-member panel, which had five women leaders. The 2023 panel has 16 members. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party MP from Bihar, Ranjeet Ranjan, are the two women in the team.
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Former minister P Chidambaram has been retained as chairman of the committee. Along with him, only two others—Jairam Ramesh and Shashi Tharoor—from the 2019 panel found a place in the new one.
The Congress party’s prominent Dalit face Jignesh Mevani, along with K Raju, who is the all India Congress committee’s national coordinator, are the scheduled caste faces of the manifesto panel. In 2019, the party had Kumari Selja and Balachandra Mungekar from the community as members.
The new committee also has TS Singh Deo, a Rajput and the former deputy chief minister of Chhattisgarh, as convener. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, a prominent other backward class leader, party veteran and former minister Anand Sharma, Manipur’s former deputy chief minister G Gaikhangam and party MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, are also part of the panel.
Congress’ Praveen Chakravarty, lawmaker Imran Pratapgarhi, tribal leader from Madhya Pradesh, Omkar Singh Markam, and congress working committee member Gurdeep Sappal are also members.
In the new panel, nine of the 16 members usually represent northern India, an area where the party needs to improve its tally and strike rates against the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the 2019 manifesto panel, only seven of 19 members were picked from northern India. “The regional balancing by party president (Mallikarjun) Kharge in the manifesto committee underlines is seen as a part of a strategy,” an aide of the Congress president said on condition of anonymity.
Similarly, Kharge has also inducted six young leaders in the manifesto panel. At least seven younger leaders, including Mevani, Pratabgarhi and Gogoi, are part of the team that in 2019 had not more than four young faces.
