Cong to brace up for challenges at Jaipur shivir

Hammered by the courts, trapped by scams and corruption charges, battling constant postponement of decisions and facing assembly elections in five states, the Congress party is likely to hold its chintan shivir (brainstorming session) in Jaipur on March 26-27 to make itself battle ready for the next round of elections.

While party president Sonia Gandhi had announced that Congress would be holding its brain-storming session in the near future, the continuous postponement of a reshuffle in the All India Congress Committee had postponed the chintan shiver, with sources saying it could not be held before the Budget Session of the Parliament, which kicks off on February 21.

The chintan shivir would now be held when the Parliament is in recess with Jaipur likely to be the venue, since the Rajasthan government had offered to hold the earlier plenary, and also because of its proximity to the national capital.

The party would be in the midst of preparing for elections to five state assemblies and would like to send the message of a united front which is serious about battling issues and keen to put its house in order.

In some of the states which are going to the polls, like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the party is in alliance and would be fighting only a number of seats.

While it is unlikely that there would be a change in the party's thinking on continuing the alliance, sources say there are a number of voices in the Congress which want that the party should live with 'honour and dignity' and not be at the beck and call of alliance partners like Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee, who are not willing to part with a respectable number of seats.

But the compulsions of coalition politics and the fact that the Congress would not like its government at the Centre destabilised is a key factor in ensuring that the status quo is not disturbed. But the party would still like to send out a strong signal that it would like to negotiate on its terms.

The government has been battling several charges of corruption both by its own partymen as well as allies, and while Sonia Gandhi has been making strong speeches, the words have not been translated into action, sending a strong message that she is not in a position to enforce her writ either in the party or the government.

With the AICC reshuffle postponed indefinitely, the question now is whether she would constitute the Congress Working Committee before the chintan shivir to ensure that the new team is part of the discussions held at Jaipur.

But with the party structure not being reorganised before the next cabinet reshuffle, it is a moot point whether the CWC would be reshuffled without the appointment of new general secretaries, since they need to be members of the CWC by virtue of their appointment.