Congress PCC chiefs fail to meet deadline on Sonia Gandhi's letter on ways to revive party

NEW DELHI: Most of the Congress PCC chiefs seem to have taken a cue from party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s hit-and-hide approach to political and organizational agenda, and have decided to try it out themselves.

The PCC chiefs have been failing to meet the deadline set by Gandhi, through a letter from his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi, asking them to respond with their views on how to revive the Grand Old Party.

Rahul Gandhi, incidentally, chose to skip an entire political season by embarking on a sabbatical for nearly a month now.

Party sources said less than half-a-dozen PCC presidents responded by February 28, the deadline set by Sonia Gandhi in her much-publicized letter to them in the first week of January.

In her letter, Sonia Gandhi had sought suggestions from the PCC chiefs on reviving the party, an idea that was floated by Rahul Gandhi. The party chiefs were told to hold brainstorming sessions at the district and block levels before sending in their response to the AICC.

The responses were to be analysed by a panel of the party’s Central Election Authority before they were used as an action plan at the AICC session.

But only PCC chiefs of Telengana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkahnd and Andhra Pradesh replied before the deadline, said sources, while the rest are yet to send in their inputs.

Realising the slow responses, AICC is trying to expedite the process in the past few weeks, exhorting them to hold the brain storming sessions, and in some cases, merely asking them to send in their endorsements.

Sonia Gandhi had sought ideas on how to strengthen the Congress’ ideology, organisational reforms, fixing accountability of leaders at all levels, future strategy for winning over critical social segments, cadre-building, and more.