Congress forms political panel, task force for 2024 polls

New Delhi: The charged up Congress is now getting ready for 2024 – the mother of all political battles as party president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday formed three groups — on political affairs for guidance on key issues, Task Force-2024 to implement the Udaipur 'Nav Sankalp' declaration and another to coordinate the October 2 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.

While Rahul Gandhi and two prominent members of the G23 — Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma — are part of the political affairs group, senior leaders P Chidambaram and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are members of the Task Force-2024.

G-23 is a group of dissenting Congress leaders who have demanded an organisational overhaul and have been vocal about their demand.

Sonia has also set up a group to coordinate the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' planned from Kanyakumari to Kashmir from Gandhi Jayanti.

"Following the Udaipur Nav Sankalp Shivir, the Congress president has constituted a Political Affairs Group that will be presided over by her, a Task-Force-2024 and a Central Planning Group for the coordination of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'," official communication from the party said.

The Political Affairs Group, headed by Sonia Gandhi, comprises Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, Anand Sharma, KC Venugopal, and Jitendra Singh while the members of the Task Force-2024 are P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Randeep Singh Surjewala, and Sunil Kanugolu.

"Each member of the Task Force shall be assigned specific tasks related to organisation, communications and media, outreach, finance, and election management. They shall have designated teams which will be notified subsequently," the statement said, adding that the Task Force will also follow up on the implementation of the Udaipur Nav Sankalp declaration.

The task force will be the body that will bring about organisational changes as decided at the three-day brainstorming session of the Congress in Rajasthan's Udaipur.

The Central Planning Group for the Coordination of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' includes Digvijaya Singh, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Ravneet Singh Bittu, KJ George, Jothi Mani, Pradyut Bordoloi, Jitu Patwari and Saleem Ahmed.

All members of the task force and all heads of the Congress' frontal organisations will be ex officio members of the central group, the statement said.

Notably, senior Congress leaders from across the country had held a three-day brainstorming session to bring about structural changes in the organisation and pave the way for the young to take a central role in the grand old party.

The party announced that it will reconnect with the people and provide 50 per cent representations to youth at all levels in the Congress, besides also enforcing the one-family-one-ticket formula, with some exceptions.