Party weighs senior leaders’ roles as it prepares for crucial state elections.
Even as the Congress is preparing for elections in several states scheduled next year, party sources indicated that the grand old party has revived the idea of putting a new Election Management Body into place, with key positions given to senior leaders to look after poll preparedness and campaigning. The idea to have a separate full-fledged Election Management Committee was floated during the three-day Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan’s Udaipur between May 14 and 16, 2022. Ramesh Chennithala had then said that identifying structural weaknesses of the Congress apparatus and the need to have micro-level election management were key learnings from the Udaipur Chintan Shivir. Chennithala, who is currently a minister in Kerala and was part of the panel that suggested sweeping organisational reforms in the Congress, had then said that the party needed to concentrate on reaching out to every voting household rather than harping on the “leadership issue” that, he claimed, “will sort itself out”. During the three-day Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir in Udaipur, the Congress Working Committee had then approved a system to monitor and evaluate performance and fix accountability.
To address this issue, Congress decided to set up three new departments — Election Management Department, Public Insight Department and Department for Performance Assessment. The new body was planned with full-time representatives, who would be appointed in every Lok Sabha and Assembly constituency to look into issues related to election preparedness. These poll representatives would be identified by the state Congress for Assembly constituencies and by the AICC for Lok Sabha seats. After four years, sources in the party indicated that discussions on having an election management committee have once again come to the fore to make the party battle ready and deal with the organisational weaknesses that had plagued the Congress in several states. The idea was that this body would have over 6,000 fulltime representatives deputed in the constituencies and they would report directly to the Election Management Department that would be set up at the AICC level. Their main task would be to study the caste, religion, age profile and other demographic aspects of the constituencies. They would also be required to gather information on important events in those areas, such as festivals or melas in which the party could engage with the people.They would also be required to create a database of eminent personalities from various fields or influential figures whom the party could reach out to. However, while the poll representatives would provide the party with feedback crucial for election management, they would not have a role in deciding tickets, sources explained about the decision taken at the Udaipur Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir.
The source said that as this would be a separate body to decide on election preparations and manage elections in the states, fixing problems till the booth level would be its responsibility. It would indicate local issues, identify probable influential people and connect with them. Party insiders now revealed that with discussions again starting in the party for the new election management body, several top leaders are likely to get prominent roles to improve the party’s communication and connect with the people, which has remained one of the key areas of concern. Congress is mulling the idea of bringing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is currently a general secretary without a portfolio, into the new body, along with senior leaders such as former Rajasthan Chief Minister and veteran party leader Ashok Gehlot, Mukul Wasnik and others. The said leaders in this powerful body would have an important role in identifying weaknesses and coming up with ideas to connect with the people. Sources said that after making her official political debut in the party in 2019, Priyanka Gandhi had served as in-charge for Uttar Pradesh and has been one of the most articulate leaders in the Lok Sabha in the last two years. So, her communication skills and leadership positioning, along with those of several senior leaders, would help the party bridge the gap.
