Cong plans celebrations to mark 125th year

The Congress is all set to hardsell itself as probably the only major political party in the world to touch the major milestone
of completing 125 years on 28 December 2010, the party will also commemorate the 25th death anniversary of Indira Gandhi on 31st October, 2009.

The history of the Congress is deeply entwined with the fortunes and misfortunes of the Nehru-Gandhi family with two members of the family, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi being assasinated while Sanjay Gandhi died in an ill-fated plane crash. As the party works on reviving its slipping fortunes and once again emerges as a potent political force, Congress leaders are all set to take the achievements of the party and its leaders do the state, district and block level over the next one year.

The celebrations are slated to begin this year itself as the party is planning to hold an All India Congress Committee session on 28 December, 2009 when it completes its 124 years. While the venue has so far not been decided, it is likely to be a one-day session and this will kick off the year long celebrations which will climax in a plenary session being held on 28 December, 2010, when the Indian National Congress completes 125 years.

A meeting of the AICC general secretaries was held on Thursday evening to chalk out the programme for 125th anniversary with senior party leaders giving a number of suggestions on what needed to be done.

The completion of 125 years of the Indian National Congress will also coincide with the organizational elections of the party which will be held over the over the next year and would end with the election of the Congress president, slated by the end of the year. With Sonia Gandhi expected

to be returned as the party president, the plenary would also be celebration of her presidentship, said a senior congress leader.

While the AICC session has been pending for some time, this would not be the huge and grand affair that the plenary would be where over 25,000 Congress leaders are expected to assemble and debate and fine tune the party's policies on key issues which are then expected to be followed by the government.

It would be interesting to see whether the Congress president would want the Congress Working Committee elections to be held during the plenary since they have not been held for the last many years and the nomination culture has come to dominate the Congress party. Rahul Gandhi has been making a strong pitch for inner party democracy, the holding of elections and transparency in the election and selection of leaders and office bearers but a number of leaders close to the Congress president are comfortable with the current arrangement which gives them absolute and unbrindled power even though they neither enjoy this power amongst either the masses or even amongst their own partymen.

While both P V Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri held elections to the CWC in Tirupati and Kolkata respectively, Sonia Gandhi did away with the elections and during her tenure the entire body of the CWC has been nominated. The CWC has been expanded top monstrous proportions with even minor leaders finding their way into the apex decision making body of the party, to the extent that it has lost much of its relevance and significance.

While the CWC is rarely called, it has to some extent been replaced by the core committee which meets every week and takes decisions on governance and other key issues of the day.