50% posts to U-50 is distilled chintan as Prashant Kishor's shadow looms large over Congress' strategy change

UDAIPUR:  The shadow of election strategist Prashant Kishor loomed large over the Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir of the Congress that began here on Friday.

For, the Udaipur Declaration the party will release at the conclusion of the brainstorming camp, will be dominated by ideas put forward by Kishor in his presentation at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence last month.

The party will announce setting up an in-house election machinery that would conduct surveys and handle all election-related work. This was one of Kishor’s suggestions.

He was, in fact, keen on heading this election machinery/department as a general secretary.

Sources said that was one reason why others pushed back against his induction, as they felt that post would make all other general secretaries redundant since they would have little role in candidate selection, campaign and funding. Kishor had also strongly criticised the Congress’.

“Jaded and aged leadership” and advocated induction of youth at all levels for better connect with the young population.

The party has decided to reserve 50% of all party posts for leaders under the age of 50 years. This would be one of the landmark decisions that would bring in a large number of young Congressmen to the fore.

Kishor’s criticism of the party for rewarding unelected sycophants and thereby turning itself into non-democratic organisation has also been paid heed to.

The party has decided to hold elections at all levels and have fixed tenures for office bearers. Another of his key suggestions was on promoting inclusive representation with regard to gender and social groups. The Congress has reportedly accepted this proposal too. The party has announced that it would create more organisational units between the booth and the block.

This would create a large number of new party functionaries and leaders. It is in line with Kishor’s idea of creating an additional “15,000 grassroots leaders… and foot soldiers”.

The party has also reportedly decided to set up a parliamentary board to work on strategies to corner the government on people’s issues in Parliament.

The board would also work on creating Opposition synergy in Parliament, which could result into electoral alliances.

Setting it up was also one of Kishor’s ideas.

The Congress used PK’s first slide of his presentation as one of its main Mahatma Gandhi quotes on banners and hoardings at the venue. The quote read: “the Indian National Congress… cannot be allowed to die, it can only die with the nation.”

His proposals to create new party positions, build in-house election machinery and set up a parliamentary board will feature in Udaipur Declaration