As part of its efforts to galvanise the Congress support base that is scattered and disenchanted, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) has convened a meeting of all past office-bearers in the Capital on Friday.
The list of invitees includes not just those who are still associated with the party, but also those who no longer have anything to do with politics.
The list of former office-bearers of the IYC reads like a Who’s Who of the Congress. It includes the likes of A.K. Antony, Ambika Soni, Anand Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad. The former IYC president Maninder Singh Bitta — who has been a bitter critic of the party in recent years — is also among those expected to put in a presence.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will participate in this conclave that is being billed as the first major get-together of the party after the election debacle.
Ever since the drubbing at the hustings, the Congress has been struggling to find its feet and is slowly waking up to the reality that it has to reach out to break the fall. The party has expanded its footprint online — particularly Twitter by creating shadow handles to keep track of work being done in various ministries and put things into perspective at a time when the Modi government is seeking to repackage UPA policies and market them as its own.