Over the next two months, the Congress plans to replicate the structured exercise it recently conducted with central leaders at the state level to enable the party to draw up a revival strategy based on the widest possible feedback. This will be presented at the AICC session, possibly in March.
To this end, Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently wrote to the party’s state chiefs, informing them about the nature of the deliberative exercise conducted by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi with close to 700-odd central leaders, enclosing a summary of the consensus that emerged, and seeking a report by February-end on “how to revive and resurrect” the party.
The summary contains sections on how to revive the organisation, the need to articulate the party’s ideology in a way that will appeal to the changing demographic and framing an effective communication strategy.
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This comes in the wake of Mr. Gandhi's directive to party general secretaries to get feedback from district and block levels.
Ms Gandhi’s letter to AICC general secretaries, secretaries and PCC chiefs comes a week after a marathon meeting the Congress Vice President had with top functionaries. A compilation of the suggestions received from the grass roots level will be presented in a booklet form.
A senior party functionary stressed that despite reports to the contrary, there would be no change in the core values of the party, that includes secularism. However, an attempt would be made to restate it in a way that would appeal to a younger generation. With the BJP in power, the Congress is conscious of a need to fashion a counter-strategy on the ideological plane.
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