Make Congress Great Again? Rahul Gandhi & Co plan to revive 60-year-old system in every district to take on resource-rich BJP

Amid rising electoral defeats, Congress is mulling leaving major decision-making functions to its district units, the building blocks of the party organisation which have been marginalised in the recent decades, according to a ToI report.

The idea of reorganising the party around District Congress Committees (DCCs) was discussed in the Wednesday meeting of the party brass, with office-bearers managing state units, sources told ToI. While president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi are learnt to have spoken about focusing on district units, ranging from strengthening its structure to promoting loyal workers, sources told ToI that the future decision on the issue may revolve around giving greater importance to DCCs.

Why is Congress giving importance to DCCs?

The party might make district units crucial in selection of candidates for elections. While the present process involves recommendations starting from DCCs and then moving to state units and then to the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the leadership believes there is greater centralisation, with marginalisation of the first recommending authority.


The likely change dates back to the system that was in place in 1960s before the shift towards the AICC happened. While Congress is discussing a return to the political primacy to districts, the lesson has been learnt at a big cost.

A big loss in Haryana, as an insider of the party, was because of no DCCs constituted in the northern Indian state for over seven years. The same has been true for many other states.

"The idea is to give greater responsibility, along with accountability, to DCCs in decision making," a party manager told ToI.

With the recent assembly defeats providing a reality check to Congress after the euphoria of Lok Sabha results in which the opposition did better than expected, Rahul has urged the states' managers to strategise better to take on the resource-rich BJP.