A new address, and then a reshaped house: Cong eyes organisational revamp

"Expect a major reshuffle in Maharashtra and Rajasthan after 27 January," said a top Congress leader

It was 9.15 pm on Thursday, December 26. The Congress brass, congregated at Belagavi, Karnataka, to observe the centenary of the Congress session in Belgaum in 1924 Mahatma Gandhi presided over (the only occasion when the Mahatma became party president), was just trooping in to dinner when Rahul Gandhi got a call. By 9.50 pm, the news of the death of Manmohan Singh, former prime minister, was public, all programmes were cancelled, and a blanket of gloom had descended on the Bharat Gandhi shamiana, which was converted into a memorial to Singh. 

Though the Belagavi meeting might not have achieved everything it set out to do — it was designed as an assertion by the Congress against demanding and squabbling INDIA alliance partners — it did put on record the promise that the party organisation would go through an extensive revamp. “The year 2025 will mark the organisational revamping program (Sangathan Srijan Karyakram) for the Congress. We will evaluate leadership accountability at every level — from booths to the top leadership. There will be a thorough assessment of capabilities, and we will implement a comprehensive overhaul of our organisation,” General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said. “We will do a massive organisational revamp, which will start immediately,” he added. With only two Assembly elections this year (Delhi and Bihar), the Congress reckons 2025 will leave it free to focus on its organisation. 

In the short run, the Belagavi meeting also decided to launch a “Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan Abhiyan”, culminating in a rally at Mhow on January 26 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Constitution coming into force and the founding of the Republic, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced at the venue.

  “Expect a major reshuffle in Maharashtra and Rajasthan after 27 January,” said a top leader and a former chief minister from Madhya Pradesh. “Nana Patole (Maharashtra Congress chief) has to go and changes should be expected in Rajasthan as well”.

  Elsewhere, some of those plans are already in motion. The Uttar Pradesh (UP) unit of the Congress — from the state level down to the block — was dissolved by Kharge a few weeks ago. A battery of top leaders from UP, including General Secretary (in charge of UP) Avinash Pande and state Congress Chief Ajay Rai, are in Lucknow currently to hold consultations with party workers at various levels on ways to revive the organisation and recast it. “Recently, all committees (of the party) have been dissolved and in the past one week, we are in consultations with senior party leaders and others to take their views on strengthening the party,” Pande said, adding that 6,280 leaders attended the meeting, which lasted seven days in two phases. Panchayat elections are due just before Assembly elections in 2027 and the party is determined to get its unit up and running by then, he said.

  The party’s Kerala unit is also agog with reports that it will be the next one to be revamped as Assembly polls are due in the state in 2026. The unit is riddled with factions and one of the most senior leaders in the state, Ramesh Chennithala, is merely an “in-charge” of a department, not even a general secretary. Himachal Pradesh, a state where the Congress has a government, has no state unit chief. In Haryana, where the party lost the Assembly election, the state in charge, Deepak Babariya, has been sacked. But much more needs to be done, party leaders said.

  The enormity of the challenge of recasting a party that has faced multiple electoral reverses, has powerful factional leaders, and is finding it hard to attract and retain young talent is acknowledged by leaders. One template was set by the party’s Udaipur Conclave in 2022. But many of those commitments are yet to be met. For instance, the party had told supporters a new department of election management would be set up. That is yet to see the light of day. Time-barred appointments not exceeding five years were to be the rule. Current General Secretary K C Venugopal is in place for more than six years. Norms were to be followed for tickets to family members. The Gandhi family is itself in the breach.

  Although the Congress Working Committee was revamped in 2023 after Mallikarjun Kharge’s election as party president, it is still a nominated body. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, MP from Wayanad, is general secretary of the party but without any specific charge. And the former leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Choudhury, holds no position in the organisation.

  “The challenge is not accommodating people at the top. It lies in getting people at the lower levels who are ready to work for the party,” said a leader who asked not to be identified. “This is the challenge we need to address in the coming days.”