Cong shifts focus to party overhaul

Even as the BJP and BSP are making all out efforts to save the government from the designs of the Samajwadi Party, the Congress has focussed...

Even as the BJP and BSP are making all out efforts to save the government from the designs of the Samajwadi Party, the Congress has focussed its attention on revitalising its state party cadre which has been dormant for the last decade.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has already addressed five meetings to strike a direct rapport with party workers at district level. Efforts are also afoot to hold more such programmes in the remaining divisions. State Congress chief Arun Kumar Singh Munna said: ‘‘Elections are possible in the state anytime given the fluid political situation which has prompted us to restructure our party cadre down to the district level on a priority basis.’’

The party has already conducted a spot assessment of its district level workers through observers. The details are likely to be sent to the party higher-ups.

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Indications are that nearly half the chiefs of the party’s 112 district units are likely to be replaced. It is for the first time that the party is taking a special interest in selecting district heads on a caste basis.

A Congress leader said: ‘‘Though there’s no official line, the fact is the party leadership will nominate district chiefs on a caste basis as there is no point in giving a district an incumbent whose caste is a minority in a particular region.’’ The party has already undertaken mass-mobilisation programmes at a time when three major parties have suspended their organisations’ activities due to different reasons.