NEW DELHI: Stung by the electoral setbacks in the assembly elections, the Congress is set for a major organisational shake-up in the coming months. It is in tune with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s announcement during the Congress Working Committee meeting in Belagavi that 2025 will be marked by efforts to implement the Udaipur Declaration and equipping the party with necessary skills to win polls from the booth to the central level.
According to sources, the party will effect major changes in AICC, state units, general secretary/ secretary levels and state in-charges, among others. It is finalising the process of restructuring, which is likely to be announced by early February, said sources.
According to sources, there will be a major overhaul in states such as Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra will see major restructuring from top to bottom, said a party source.
“The party faced huge embarrassment after the defeat of senior leaders such as Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat. Many heads will roll in the state,” said a senior leader. In UP, the grand old party has already dissolved its state and district committees.
The state will go to polls in 2027. AICC general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh Kumari Selja may also face the axe in the reshuffle, said sources. After the party’s debacle in Haryana, Selja had questioned the election management of the leadership in the polls.
Multiple leaders told this paper that the party is likely to go in for a leadership change in the communication department, headed by AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh.
Others who work in the communication department include Pawan Khera, chairman of the media and publicity department and Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of social media and digital platforms.
Though Kharge said that the party will implement the Udaipur Declaration, which bars its leaders from holding an organisational position for more than five years, it is not clear whether it will affect AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, who has been holding the post for six years now. “We will fill all the vacant posts. We will equip our organisation, right from the level of the AICC to booths, with the necessary skills to win elections,” Kharge had said.
Sonia to inaugurate new party HQ on Jan 15
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the party’s new HQ at 9A, Kotla Road in Delhi on January 15 in the presence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.