Congress' new team to keep eye on government policies

NEW DELHI: Congress has constituted a four-member group to keep an eye on policy-making in the Modi government and prepare the party for retaliatory action.

The group, called the 'research and coordination committee', will focus on the good and bad aspects of various measures initiated by the Centre. Badly decimated in the elections, Congress has been accusing the BJP regime for renaming the schemes and policies of UPA regime and parading them as new, not sparing even the Centre's trumpeted 'Clean India' campaign and ' Jan Dhan' scheme.

Sources said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has nominated Sandeep Dikshit, Randeep Surjewala, Sanjay Nirupam and Rajeev Gowda to the research cell. It is seen to have replaced a similar group with 12 heavyweight Congress members that was formed during the UPA but stayed inactive.

The new committee is lean and with a focused target area. Insiders dubbed it the first organizational appointment by the Congress leadership since the party's relegation to the opposition benches.

"We will keep a close eye on the government. We will research policies and unearth the hidden details and their implications," Nirupam told TOI when asked about the formation of the cell.

With Congress staring at a prolonged bleak phase and the BJP's star on the rise, the grand old party believes it has to hunker down and focus on issues to corner the government in public domain and not appear to be in a hurry. Its emaciated muscle in Lok Sabha with just 44 MPs makes it difficult for Congress to put across its opposition forcefully in Parliament.

The post-defeat reality seems to have nudged Congress to give a focused shape to "playing the opposition". A party leader said, "It has been under discussion among the leadership for some time."