Cong chintan shivir to set tone for polls

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Former Union minister and veteran Congress leader B. Janardhana Poojary performs “Urulu seve” at Sri Gokarnanatheshwara Temple

While the two-day chintan shivir of the Congress in Jaipur in January will set the tone for the coming Assembly elections in about 10 states, organisational issues will figure prominently in it.
The Congress has called the brain-storming session on January 18 and 19 ahead of the Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir to be held in phases during the year.
And its outcome could influence the Lok Sabha elections next year, mainly because it will see the straight fight between the Congress and the BJP in five states.
About 300 select leaders, including its chief ministers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Rajasthan, Kerala, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, CLP leaders and PCC presidents in 36 states will take part in the deliberations. Besides, the Union ministers of the party will also attend the session which will discuss issues related to political and social challenges.
Although the Congress has unseated the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, it has been weak in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Orissa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Andhra Pradesh was one of its strongest states but the agitation on the separate state of Telangana and the emergence of the YSR Congress, led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy posed a challenge before the Congress.
The party can check the possible damage if it takes corrective steps on these fronts, viewed a senior AICC official.
Emergence of the civil society and the growing gender violence have equally worried the party. The issue of women’s security is expected to figure in the speech of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Women participants have decided to raise this issue along with the growing incidents of attacks on women across the country.
The Congress Working Committee is expected to meet on the eve of the one-day AICC meet in Jaipur on January 20.
While the current mood in the Congress is against projecting a “leader” in the election-going states, insiders concede that the party defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh because of a strong “face” (chief minister Virbhadra Singh) and chief minister Sheila Dikshit will be its face in the electoral battle in Delhi.