Cong constitutes 17-member think tank to address party's ideological divide

Apart from Sonia and her son, Rahul Gandhi, other members of this think tank include Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal and others.

With the Congress finding itself at an ideological crossroads on issues such as Article 370, the role of V D Savarkar in the national movement, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, party president Sonia Gandhi (pictured) has constituted a "think tank" to discuss these issues internally. This 17-member think tank will have its first meeting on Friday, a day after the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly poll results are announced, and will take stock of the results. Apart from Sonia and her son, Rahul Gandhi, other members of this think tank include Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Rajeev Gowda, Randeep Surjewala, KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,  Rajeev Satav and Sushmita Dev. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is not part of the think tank.

Singh vs Singh

A day after Congress MLA Lakshman Singh protested outside his elder brother and party veteran Digvijaya Singh's house, the legislator met former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhopal, fuelling speculation in political circles. Chouhan and the MLA termed the meeting a "courtesy call". The legislator's demand was that the senior Congress leader set a date for a function to announce the creation of Chachoda district. After the meeting, Chouhan also told reporters that "it was a courtesy meeting. We meet occasionally... We also support the demand that Chachoda be made a district". Chachoda is Lakshman Singh's constituency and the MLA said Chief Minister Kamal Nath had announced in July this year that it would be given the status of district.

Taking a filmy route

Encouraged by the growing tourist traffic in Chanderi (a small town more famous for its saris), the Madhya Pradesh government is planning to bring in a film policy to promote tourism in the region. The idea was born when government officials noticed that after the movie Stree was shot in the town, tourist footfalls crossed 50,000 this year, a big jump over last year. The government is planning to appoint a coordinator who will take care of film units' needs and suggest to them locations for their shoot.