Leave indecisiveness and restructure Congress: Party seniors' message to Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Leave indecisiveness and restructure the organization to strengthen Congress – this is the message that senior Congressmen gave to Rahul Gandhi in his first interaction with the top brass after taking over as vice-president.

Gandhi held his first meeting of All India Congress ( AICC) general secretaries, incharge of states, office-bearers and secretaries at the party headquarters on Thursday to get a feedback on ways to strengthen the party ahead of crucial Assembly elections and 2014 parliamentary polls. The message he got was very candid as senior leaders asked him not to delay a decision on organizational reshuffle as they felt indecision could cost the party in the forthcoming elections. The suggestions were so many that the newly-appointed vice-president decided to continue the interaction on Friday.

According to sources, Gandhi asked the leaders to be “frank” and “speak what you would not speak anywhere else”. As Gandhi set the tone of the meeting, senior leaders did not hold back. Senior general secretary Digvijaya Singh, though spoke for just a minute, asked Gandhi to leave his indecisiveness and restructure the organization. “End this situation of indecisiveness. Take a decision on organizational restructuring. We are with you,” he is believed to have told Gandhi.

Senior leader Jagmeet Brar echoed similar thoughts when he said that there should be immediate restructuring of state units. “We have been delaying our decisions. Sometimes there is malmaas (inauspicious time as per Hindu calendar). Then there is shraadh or parliament session. There is always something and we don’t take decisions,” he told Gandhi adding that he had heard people from Punjab complaining that Congress would not have lost the Assembly election in the state had it taken decisions on state leadership on time.

The feedback has come at a time when the Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been postponing a decision on AICC reshuffle and state units restructuring. Presidents of several state units, including Haryana, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh need to be changed. However, no decision has been taken.

Congress general secretaries also complained about loyal party workers not getting their due within the party. Senior leader B K Hariprasad spoke about “money power” dominating the party. “Loyal workers are ignored when it comes to ticket allocation,” he said echoing what Gandhi had himself said in Jaipur AICC meeting about leaders from other political parties “parachuting” at the cost of loyal workers right before elections.

Senior minister and general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad suggested party needed to promote regional leaders to strengthen itself in states. Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel also spoke about strengthening the organization and the block and district level.