Prashant Kishor roadmap report in hand, Sonia sets up action group for Congress revival

The party also officially announced that it will hold a brainstorming session—Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir—from May 13 to May 15 in Udaipur in Rajasthan. Around 400 Congress leaders from across the country would attend the three-day session.

Sonia Gandhi also met members of the eight-member group which went through Kishor’s presentation. The group comprising P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Digvijaya Singh, Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, K C Venugopal, and Randeep Surjewala had met several times last week to go through Kishor’s presentation and prepare a report. In principle, sources said, the committee has agreed with most of the suggestions made by Kishor.

The meeting also took place a day after the Indian Political Action Committee or I-PAC signed a contract with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for the 2023 Assembly elections. Sources said many of the senior leaders are upset with the fact the I-PAC has entered into a contract with its opponent TRS at a time when Kishor was in talks with the Congress top brass.

“Today, she discussed that report with the group. Based on the discussions, the Congress president has decided to constitute an empowered action group 2024 in order to address the political challenges ahead,” said Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala.

Surjewala said the focus of the deliberations at the brainstorming session will be on the current political and economic situation and the challenges they pose to society.

“Issues relating to the welfare and well-being of kisans (farmers) and khet mazdoors (farm labourers), Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, religious and linguistic minorities and women social justice and empowerment and youth will also be discussed in detail. In addition, matters relating to organisational restructuring and strengthening will be examined. The Chintan Shivir will also deliberate on the broad strategy of the Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

The party has already set up six committees to draft resolutions to be passed at the session. While the committee which will draft the political resolution will be headed by the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, the resolution on the economic situation would be chaired by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Another committee to prepare the papers and lead the discussion on issues related to farmers and agriculture would be headed by former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a member of the G 23 ginger group. The committee has Chhattisgarh minister T S Singh Deo, Shaktisinh Gohil, Nana Patole, Partap Singh Bajwa, Arun Yadav, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Geeta Kora, and Ajay Kumar Lallu as its members.

The Kharge-headed group, which will draw up and present the political resolution at the Chintan Shivir has senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Chavan, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Shashi Tharoor, Gaurav Gogoi, Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, and Ragini Nayak as its members.

The members of the Chidambaram-lead committee are Siddaramaiah, Anand Sharma, Sachin Pilot, Manish Tewari, Rajeev Gowda, Praniti Shinde, Gaurav Vallabh, and Supriya Shrinate.

A committee to draft a report on issues related to “social and empowerment” will be headed by Salman Khurshid. Its members are Meira Kumar, Digvijaya Singh, Kumari Selja, Nabam Tuki, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Naranbhai Rathwa, Anto Antony, and K Raju.

The committee on matters related to organisation is headed by Mukul Wasnik, another signatory to the G 23 letter. Its members are Ajay Maken, Tariq Anwar, Ramesh Chennithala, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Netta D’souza, and Meenakshi Natarajan. A committee on youth and empowerment will be headed by Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.