Rahul Gandhi has formed a group of 10 leaders who will decide the Congress' policy on key issues. (File photo)
Highlights
- Rahul Gandhi plans overhaul of party after election losses
- Wants senior members on panel like National Advisory Council
- Panel of 10 people to decide party stand on important policies
To re-energize the Congress, Vice President Rahul Gandhi has fallen back on an old idea: A group of 10 leaders who will decide the party's policy on key issues like welfare reforms and tribal rights.
Congress sources admit the advisors bloc could be seen as inspired by the BJP's parliamentary board. But the analogy that really sticks is the National Advisory Council, which was chaired by Mr Gandhi's mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi when the Congress was last in power.
The group mixed businessmen with activists, and was often attacked for serving as a super-cabinet whose recommendations were followed diligently and unquestioningly by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Mr Gandhi envisages a body of 10 senior members including former union ministers P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad; the bloc will be pitched as a sample of his vision of "collective leadership" in a party that has resolutely adhered to a tradition of dynastic politics.
The new team will be announced after the Rajya Sabha elections for 54 seats are held on Saturday.
Since 2014, when the Congress earned its worst-ever national result with a compact 44 seats, the party has been unable to reverse a trend of huge defeats in one state after another. The only major state it now holds is Karnataka.
After last month's loss of Assam and Kerala, top party leaders like Digvijaya Singh and Shashi Tharoor urged a major overhaul while steering clear of blaming the Gandhis even indirectly for the electoral calamity.
Many leaders say Mr Gandhi, 45, must now accept a promotion to President to signal the party is reconfiguring a newer and younger top line.
NDTV contacted K Raju who is working out the details of this body, but he refused to comment on the new org chart.
However, Mr Raju, a spokesperson who is reportedly to be promoted to general secretary in Team Rahul, said the Congress already has a policy department.
That may be a coy party line till the new team is made public. As one Congressman explained, "When you are in government, you can make people ministers, but out of government, you need such bodies."