New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will review the Congress revamp along with all the general secretaries and state in-charges on March 18 to finetune strategies ahead of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Ahmedabad on April 8, 9.
Keen on reviving the grand old party by empowering around 800 district units across the country, the Congress high command had held a seven-hour long brainstorming session with the general secretaries and state in charges on February 19 and later asked the state in charges to fill up all the vacant positions at the district level.
Once all the district unit heads are appointed, the high command will discuss the revamp strategy with them over a three-day conclave before the AICC session, during which some key organisational changes are likely to be approved by around 3,000 delegates from across the country.
However, as the in-charges got down to reorganising the district units, a need to work out coordination among the various factions was felt so the new system will work smoothly in the future. Also, as the high command aims to establish a new system to get direct feedback from the empowered district unit heads, the details of the same need to be discussed with the persons who will help revive the grand old party at the local level.
"The March 18 review meeting is a work in progress and the process of appointing district unit heads will be completed soon. The focus is to empower the district units and make them accountable, for instance, in giving feedback during election candidate selection and manifesto drafting.
"Rahul Gandhi and Kharge have been talking about the need to decentralise decision-making in the party. Now, they will make these changes structural. The top-down system will change and the revamped district units will alter the way the party functions. We are also discussing ways through which the high command often gets to hear directly from the district unit heads. The entire process is being streamlined," AICC in-charge of Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Nagaland Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka told ETV Bharat.
Earlier, Kharge had dismissed the units in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha last year which are now being recast afresh by the respective state in charges Avinash Pande, Rajani Patil and Ajay Kumar Lallu respectively. Similarly, the in-charges in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Hayana, Goa and Gujarat are revamping the district units.
The gaps in Haryana, where there have been no district units over the past 11 years, showed when the Congress once again performed badly in the recent local body elections. In neighbouring Punjab, where the situation is much better, new-in-charge Bhupesh Baghel has asked the state leadership to push the plan to revive the district and booth-level units to take on the ruling AAP ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.
"This is a year of the organisation. We also have an AICC session coming up next month. During the March 18 review, both the issues will be discussed," AICC in-charge of Goa Manikrao Thakre told ETV Bharat.
