Congress Working Committee to meet today ahead of Chintan Shivir in Udaipur

File image: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (left), Rahul Gandhi (centre) and Sonia Gandhi. (Image: PTI)

The Congress working committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, will meet at AICC headquarters on May 9, ahead of the ‘Chintan Shivir’ – the brain storming session – scheduled in Udaipur, Rajasthan over the weekend.

At today’s meeting, the party will finalise the proposals of the six panels set up last month to deliberate upon the political and economic situation in the country. The proposals of these six panels will be part of a resolution that will be adopted during the three-day session in Udaipur to begin on May 13.

The panels were set up to lead discussions on social justice, economy, farmers and youth, besides political and organisational issues, the party said.

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The panels are headed by leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge (political), former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid (social justice and empowerment), former finance minister P Chidambaram (economy), party general secretary Mukul Wasnik, former chief minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda (farmers and agriculture) and Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Warring (youth and empowerment)

At the Udaipur session, the party leaders from across the country will discuss internal issues confronting it and come up with solutions to galvanise the organisation. As many as 400 top party leaders are expected to attend the camp. These include senior leaders including those in the CWC, members of parliament, state in-charges, general secretaries, and state presidents.

This brainstorming session comes at a time when the grand-old party is struggling to win elections and has been reduced to just 29 seats in Rajya Sabha and 53 in Lok Sabha. Last, a similar brain storming session of the Congress was held in 2003. Soon after, the party came to power in 2004.

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The Congress had earlier also announced that an empowered group would be constituted to address the political challenges and prepare the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, days after deliberating on a revival plan presented by poll strategist Prashant Kishor.

Kishor, however, declined the Congress’s offer to join the party. He said more than him, the party needs leadership and collective will to fix deep-rooted structural problems by carrying out transformational reforms.

(With PTI inputs)