The Congress announced wide-ranging organisational reforms to make the party battle-ready for the next round of assembly and Lok Sabha polls, stressing on wider representation to those under 50 years of age and enforcing ‘one person, one post’ and ‘one family, one ticket’ rules with riders.
However, enforcement of one family, one ticket’ rule will be with the exception to be made only when another family member has been working in the party for at least five years.
The party also decided that no person should hold one party position for more than five years to give opportunity to new people. It has also decided to provide 50 per cent representation to those below 50 years of age at all levels of organisation.
These were the major organisational decisions taken in its Udaipur Declaration adopted after deliberations at the three-day ‘Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir’, concluded in Udaipur of Rajasthan on Sunday.
The Congress also decided to set up three new departments — public insight, election management and national training. In her concluding address, Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced that a task force will be set up to initiate the organisational reforms.
She also announced that the Congress will launch a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir beginning on Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti October 2. The composition of the task force will be notified in the next two-three days, she said.
“I feel it has been a very useful and productive ‘shivir’. So many of you have had an opportunity to express your views and offer your suggestions in a spirit of constructive participation. I have received a summary of discussions in each of the six groups. They will inform our party positions, policies and programmes” she added.
They will also be of value to prepare manifestos for state and national elections, she added. She, however, said the new group is not a collective decision-making body but will help her get the benefit of the vast experience of senior colleagues.
“I want to make a special mention of the report of the organisational group since it is the most immediately relevant. Some of its ideas have formed part of the ‘Udaipur Nav Sankalp Declaration’ that has just been adopted. I assure you that the detailed recommendations of the group will be acted upon expeditiously,” she asserted.
“We will undoubtedly leave re-energised with a refreshed spirit of collective purpose, she said.
Meanwhile, the party will also launch the second phase of its ‘Jan Jagran Yatra’ at the district level from June 15, she announced. This extensive campaign will highlight economic issues, especially growing unemployment and intolerable price rise that are destroying livelihoods, she said.
