No 'preraks', only coordinators for Congress: Sonia

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday turned down a proposal to have 'preraks' (motivators) for conducting party's outreach activities across the country.

There was consensus at a meeting of Congress' top brass chaired by Gandhi to continue with the old system of having trainers who would further be tasked with the responsibility of propagating party's ideology and articulating its views on a range of issues.

Sources said a proposal to have 'preraks' was made at the Congress meeting of general secretaries, incharges, PCC chiefs and CLP leaders on Thursday by Sachin Rao, who is AICC in-charge of training.

The proposal invited instant objections from many Congress leaders starting with Mukul Wasnik, who said it sounded too similar to the word 'Pracharak'.

RSS, the BJP's ideological mentor, has a system of 'Pracharaks'.

Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have acknowledged Wasnik's objection and rejected the term 'prerak' in favour of the already used word "trainer -coordinator".

The Congress now plans to have coordinators across the country who will propagate the party's message in the area he is assigned to.