UDAIPUR: The Congress on Sunday adopted its Udaipur Nav Sankalp Declaration at the end of its chintan shivir, drawing up a comprehensive roadmap for wide-ranging internal reforms to make the party battle-ready for all upcoming elections till the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
A task force will be set up in the next 2-3 days to implement the decisions, Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced in her concluding address. Also, an advisory committee of Congress Working Committee (CWC) members headed by Sonia will be formed to deliberate on political issues.
Earlier, the CWC vetted the reports of six dedicated panels on organisational, political, economic, agricultural, social justice and youth-related issues, which formed the crux of the Udaipur Declaration.
Among the approved proposals was the ‘one family, one ticket’ rule, with exemption for big hitters in the party for five years, which was seen as tailor-made for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. As reported in these columns over the last two days, 50% representation to those below 50 years of age across the party organisation, and 50% in-house representation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and minorities at all levels were approved. Also, no one can hold a party position for more than five years.
Also, Congress will set up three new departments — public insight, election management and national training. Besides, it will also set up a monitoring wing to track the performance of all party officials across the country.
Prominent among the mass action programmes the party conceived was a nationwide Kashmir to Kanniyakumari ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Gandhi Jayanti day on October 2 this year. “It will aim to preserve the foundational values of our Constitution that are under assault and will highlight the day-to-day concerns of our people,” Sonia said.
She also announced the start of a mass contact programme, called Jan Jagran Abhiyan, at the district level from June 15. Sonia sought to energise the delegates, saying, “we will overcome — that is our determination, that’s our sankalp.”