Sonia holds open classes for Cong

NEW DELHI, April 7: Radical changes in the Congress set-up are in the offing including decentralisation of big PCC units and formation of a ...

NEW DELHI, April 7: Radical changes in the Congress set-up are in the offing including decentralisation of big PCC units and formation of a Political Affairs Committee (PAC) for the party’s parliamentary wing, going by the indications from party president Sonia Gandhi’s first day of discovering the Congress.

Sonia went about learning the Congress’ intricacies and problems in an unprecedented open and democratic way where each state’s AICC delegates were given a patient hearing in a room with open windows, giving onlookers access to the discussions. Nothing like this had happened in the Congress for at least two decades and, predictably, party workers

were enthused.

But the problems are myriad as Sonia discovered. For example, in the Madhya Pradesh meeting, there were several angry AICC members who called for the ouster of Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and PCC president Urmila Singh, holding the duo responsible for the party’s poor showing in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

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The MP meeting was the moststormy and Singh later said his continuance in office was entirely dependent on Sonia’s wishes. "I have already owned moral responsibility for our showing. It is up to the high command to do what they like," Singh said.

Later, Singh and other state leaders met Rajesh Pilot who is heading the committee to look into why the Congress fared badly in MP. It was a bad day in the Capital for Singh who met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and handed over a memorandum for more Central relief to the farmers affected by the recent hailstorm in the state. He is to be here for two more days and there were others who shared his uncomfortable fate today.

The Uttar Pradesh scenario was also painted grim in the state AICC delegates meeting with the Congress president. Sonia started at 10 am and was still at it till well after 10 pm and may even meet some people tomorrow. Today, states like Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka and the North-Eastern states finished their meeting with her.

However, some crucialdecisions seem to have been agreed upon by Sonia. Foremost is the constitution of a PAC for the party’s parliamentary wing comprising 15 to 20 MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Sonia is expected to be the PAC chairperson and Sharad Pawar and Manmohan Singh, party leaders in the two Houses of Parliament, will be her deputies.

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This forum will take charge of all parliamentary work including important political decisions the Congress may have to take in the Lok Sabha where the difference between the treasury benches and the Opposition is thin. More importantly, big PCC units like UP, MP and Bihar are likely to have some sort of a coordination committee instead of the normal PCC at the top.

There are likely to be about 10 Regional Congress Committees (RCCs) in UP and MP as it is being felt that no single leader can command total respect any longer. For example, Harish Rawat’s name is doing the rounds as head of the Uttarakhand RCC and Salman Khursheed may head one of the other ones in thestate.

There is a strong chance that a new Chattisgarh RCC may be formed in light of the BJP-led Union Government’s decision to form a separate Chattisgarh state carving it out of MP. Digvijay Singh too was in favour of a Chattisgarh state coming up before November when MP is due for Assembly elections. The breaking up of PCCs is an admission of ground reality in states where the Congress is unable to attract people to its side. The feeling is that independent and smaller units could be more effective.