The Congress on Saturday set up three crucial committees to look after election affairs related to coordination, manifesto and publicity for the 2019 lok Sabha polls.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi formed a nine-member Core Group Committee comprising AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala and KC Venugopal. A 19-member Manifesto Committee has been set up to come out with the party’s manifesto for the general elections and a committee comprising 19 top party leaders will look after the party’s publicity during the elections.
Rahul recently visited Germany and is in the UK, highlighting the party’s vision for the 2019 polls. The conveners of these panels will be announced later.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, known as an election strategist for the party, had not been a member of the Congress Working Committee. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is part of both the Core Group Committee and Manifesto Committee, along with Ramesh. Similarly, party’s media incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala is included in both core and publicity committee.
Party leaders said Rahul has opted for a blend of young and old leaders, taking the experience of the veterans and the energy of the youth together. Rahul’s decision shows he has not gone for any drastic overhaul.
“Senior Congress leaders like Antony, Azad, Gehlot, Kharge and Patel, who are in the core committee, have worked under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. Surjewala is the only youth leader who is a close aide of Rahul and who has been included in the core committee. Even the publicity and manifesto committees comprise old-timers as well as some fresh faces,” Congress leaders said. Interestingly, there is no leader from Delhi, while three are from Haryana.
When asked about the formation of these committees so early, a Congress leader pointed out that it has been done so that the party would be in a position to face election any time if the Modi Government decides to announce early lok Sabha polls.
Announcing the setting up of the committees, party general secretary, organisation, Ashok Gehlot said with the constitution of the committees, the party will go into election mode and start the work of putting up a manifesto and draw strategy for publicity and coordination.
The manifesto committee has Chidambaram, Ramesh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor, Kumari Selja, Sushmita Dev, Rajeev Gowda, Mukul Sangma, Manpreet Singh Badal, Sam Pitroda, Sachin Rao, Bindu Krishnan, Raghuveer Meena, Balchnadra Mungekar, Meenakshi Natrajan, Rajni Patil, Tamradhwaj Sahu and lalitesh Tripathii as its members. The manifesto committee will finalise the manifesto for the general elections.
The publicity committee includes media in-charge Randeep Surjewala, social media head Dvya Spandana, newly appointed Rajya Sabha member Kumar Ketkar, former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, and spokespersons Pawan Khera, Rajeev Shukla, Pramod Tiwari and former Minister Milind Deora are members of the panel. The committee will look after the party’s publicity during the elections.
Recently, Rahul had said that the 2019 lok Sabha elections will be a straight contest between the BJP and the “entire opposition” and their “first priority” is to defeat the ruling alliance.