9 days after poll drubbing, Rahul wakes up

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the organisational elections should be utilised to "reinvigorate and rejuvenate" the party following the debacle in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

In his first formal interaction with top party leaders in New Delhi after the defeat of the Congress in assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana, Gandhi wanted the organisational elections to be "free, fair and transparent" to make the party fighting fit.

He said full powers have been given to the party's central Election Authority, headed by Mullapalli Ramchandran, so as to make the exercise truly effective and foolproof.

Rahul's remarks came as the Congress continued to face a trail of defeat and there is a buzz about the possibility of sweeping changes in the party organisation in the near future.

Organisational weakness has been cited as one of the major reasons for the debacle of the Congress starting from 2010 assembly elections in Bihar, also in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2012.

It was one of the factors in the defeat of the Congress in this year's Lok Sabha polls, apart from price rise and perception of corruption, which were attributed as the main factors of party's poor show.

General secretaries in-charge of states and a number of Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs besides members of the election authority participated in Tuesday's meeting.

The process for organisational elections in the party has already begun, which would culminate with the election of a new party President next year.

Rahul has been pressing for larger say to grass root workers in the election of party office bearers for long.

Ramchandran, a former Union minister and chairman of the party's Central Election Authority, had claimed that the Congress will have a "100 per cent transparent" organisational elections this time. The talk about bringing in "fresh leadership" at all levels has already been doing rounds in the party.          

Last week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had conducted a stock-taking exercise following the party's debacle in the assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra even as a clamour for "course correction" grows within its ranks in the wake of the dip in electoral fortunes.

Image: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi