With an eye to Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday constituted a Coordination Committee headed by her close aide Ahmed Patel and consisting of senior party leaders Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma, Madhusudan Mistry, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Manik Tagore.
Patel has convened its first meeting on Friday to strategise coordination of the party activities for the Maharashtra and Haryana polls.
A senior AICC leader said Patel has been assigned the new responsibility considering his acceptance among all the party leaders, old and young, and also within the Opposition leaders.
The Congress and the NCP are alliance partners on equal number of seats in Maharashtra and the NCP is headed by Sharad Pawar, who enjoys a good rapport with Patel. While Scindia headed the Screening Committee for Maharashtra, the onus is now on Patel to keep intact the flock till the end of elections.
The overarching Patel-ed committee has been mandated to monitor the election coordination committee, Pradesh election committee, campaign committee, publicity and publication committee, media and communications committee, transport and accommodation committee, protocol committee and discipline committee till the end of the polls in both the crucial States.
The first task on Thursday what the committee did was to give green signal to the party’s manifesto for Haryana which will be released on Friday. Sources said the manifesto focuses on addressing the issue being faced by the farmers, poor, women and youngsters.
The former political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, Patel was appointed as party’s treasurer by the then Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in August last year. This was Patel’s second stint as a treasurer (he last held the job from 1996 to 2000) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Patel, a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, has deep access among different quarters including industrialists and political leaders across party lines and could bridge the link between Congress’ old and new generation as well. His role was crucial in keeping intact the alliance partners of Congress-led UPA Governments.
Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi will start his campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly elections from Mumbai on Sunday.