Manmohan Singh heads drafting committee for Congress plenary

NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday constituted a 46-member Drafting Committee headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the party's March 16-18 plenary here.

He also constituted an Organising Committee, four subgroups, besides a Constitution Amendment Committee. 

The Organising Committee headed by party Treasurer Motilal Vora has Oscar Fernandes as Convenor and party General Secretaries and incharges of states as members.

There are nine special invitees to the Organising Committee, including Ahmed Patel, Sheila Dikshit, Ajay Maken and Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Party leader Mukul Wasnik is Convenor of the Drafting Committee that will finalise resolutions to be adopted at the session. 

The Drafting Committee has party heavyweights like former Union Ministers A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, besides Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. 

The 'political' subgroup headed by Antony has former Union Minister Kumari Selja as Convenor. Members include Azad, Kharge and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. 

The 'economic affairs' subgroup headed by former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has Jairam Ramesh as Convenor and Antony, Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma and M. Veerapa Moily among the members. 

The 'international affairs' subgroup headed by Anand Sharma has party MP Jyotiraditya Scindia as Convenor and its members include former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Antony, Chidambaram, Salman Khursid, Shashi Tharoor and Amarinder Singh. 

The subgroup on 'agriculture, employment and poverty alleviation' headed by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has former MP Meenakshi Natarajan as Convenor and members include Amarinder Singh, K.V. Thomas, Randeep Surjewala, and Jairam Ramesh. 

The Constitution Amendment Committee headed by Azad has Janardan Dwivedi as Convenor.