Congress president Sonia Gandhi forms three groups to chart road ahead for party

NEW DELHI: To chart the Congress' future course, its chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday formed three groups -- on political affairs for guidance on key issues, Task Force-2024 to implement the Udaipur 'Nav Sankalp' declaration and another to coordinate the October 2 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.

While Rahul Gandhi and two prominent members of the G23 -- Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma -- are part of the political affairs group, senior leaders P Chidambaram and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are members of the Task Force-2024.

G-23 is a group of dissenting Congress leaders who have demanded an organisational overhaul.

Sonia Gandhi has also set up another group to coordinate the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' planned from Kanyakumari to Kashmir from Gandhi Jayanti.

"Following the Udaipur Nav Sankalp Shivir, the Congress president has constituted a Political Affairs Group that will be presided over by her, a Task-Force-2024 and a Central Planning Group for the coordination of the "Bharat Jodo Yatra", an official communication from the party said.

The Political Affairs Group, headed by Sonia Gandhi, comprises Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, Anand Sharma, K C Venugopal and Jitendra Singh.

The members of the Task Force-2024 are P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Sunil Kanugolu.

"Each member of the Task Force shall be assigned specific tasks related to organization, communications and media, outreach, finance and election Management.

"They shall have designated teams which will be notified subsequently," the statement said, adding the Task Force will also follow up on the Udaipur Nav Sankalp declaration.

The Central Planning Group for the Coordination of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' includes Digvijaya Singh, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Ravneet Singh Bittu, K J George, Jothi Mani, Pradyut Bordoloi, Jitu Patwari and Saleem Ahmed.

All members of the task force and all heads of the Congress' frontal organisations will be ex officio members of the central group, the statement said.