Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 8: Humiliated in one after another state Assembly elections even after comparatively decent showing the general elections last year, the Congress has decided to go for a “massive organisational reshuffle” with a vow to take forward Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy that the party claimed the BJP and the RSS were “trying to usurp.”
The AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said on Tuesday after the party’s top leadership deliberated on the issue that the party had vowed to embark on the “path of social justice” espoused by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Briefing reporters after the extended Congress Working Committee meeting at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial in Ahmedabad, Mr Venugopal noted that the Congress has dedicated this year to a complete restructuring of the party organisation and the issue was discussed at length at the meeting.
“We are going to have a massive organisational reshuffle, and there will be guidelines for the same. Our general secretaries and in-charges are on it,” he said. Mr Venugopal also stressed that measures to empower the party’s district unit chiefs would be rolled out soon.
“We have already decided on that issue, empowering the DCC presidents and duties and powers of the DCCs has been discussed in various forums, already general secretaries and in-charges have approved the proposals and we are going to roll out that proposal in the near future,” he said while replying to queries.
Mr Venugopal said the Extended CWC passed a resolution that “our party will walk on the path showed to us by Sardar Patel ji.” “He stood up against the oppression of the British, fighting for the rights of workers and farmers. He rejected communal forces after Bapu’s assassination. He fought for an India where everyone had fundamental rights and freedoms. “Today, as we embark on the path of social justice, our Nyay Path follows the same principles laid down by Sardar Patel,” he said.
In his opening address at the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also asserted the party’s claim to Sardar Patel’s legacy and accused the BJP and RSS of trying to usurp it under a “well-planned conspiracy” against national heroes.
Mr Kharge stressed that the Congress is taking forward the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Patel. “Sardar Patel Saheb lives in our hearts, lives in our thoughts. We are taking his legacy forward. We have organised this CWC meeting in Ahmedabad at Sardar Patel Museum with this thought in mind. We pay our heartfelt tributes to him,” he said.
Earlier in the day, AICC general secretary Sachin Pilot told reporters that the Congress intended to create more empowered district units with their presidents having enhanced accountability, responsibility and political strength.
He said the Congress would fight the upcoming elections with strength and expressed confidence that the Congress and its supporting ideologies would come together to give the BJP and the NDA a tough challenge.
Briefing reporters outside the venue, Mr Pilot said, “The intention of the Congress president and the Leader of Opposition is to create a more empowered district unit.” “The accountability, the responsibility and the political strength that we have thus given to the district presidents is set to be enhanced,” he stressed.
The final outcome will be decided after the convention on Wednesday but the intention of the Congress was to make the District Pradesh Congress (DCC) presidents more empowered than before, the former Union minister said, adding the move was aimed at expanding the party’s reach in villages, divisions and booths.
“The year 2025 is the year of the organisation to strengthen our workers, expand our party ideology and to make sure that the Congress reaches out in a mass contact programme through padyatras and door-to-door programmes,” he said.
The party wants to send a clear message not just to its opponents but to its supporters and workers that the Congress would not step back and fight aggressively both within Parliament and outside, and make sure it wins the next political challenge, Mr Pilot said.
“Elections are fought to be won, the next few elections we will fight with strength and I am supremely confident that the Congress and its supporting ideologies will come together to give the BJP and the NDA a tough challenge,” Mr Pilot said.
