Rahul Gandhi becomes the head of congress coordination committee for 2014 polls
New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi was on Thursday made the head of the Congress Coordinaton Committee for 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Janardan Dwivedi, Digvijay Singh, Madhusudan Mistry and Jairam Ramesh are the members of the Election Coordination Committee headed by Gandhi, AICC Generasl Secretary Janardan Dwivedi announced.
“As announced by Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the Sanvad Baithak at Surajkund, she has constituted an Election Coordination Committee and three Sub-Groups keeping in view the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2014”, Dwivedi, who is also AICC Media Department Chairperson, said.
The Manifesto and Government Programmes Sub Group, also headed by Antony, has P Chidambaram, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, Sandeep Dikshit, Ajit Jogi, Renuka Chowdhary and P L Punia as members. The Committee also has Mohan Gopal, who is an expert, as a special invitee.
The Communications and Publicity Sub Group, chaired by Digvijay, has former I and B Minister Ambika Soni, her successor Manish Tewari, Deepender Hooda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajiv Shukla and Bhakta Charan Das as members.
Announcing the setting up of a Coordination Group and sub-groups with specific tasks at the party’s Samvad Baithak on November 9 at Surajkund, Gandhi had said that “with a year and half left for the Lok Sabha elections, both party and government will have to work cohesively together to ensure that we secure a renewed mandate”.
The announcement came days after it became known that the party’s Chintan Shivir is likely to be held at Jaipur in mid January in which the issue of alliances as also the strategy for the 2014 polls is expected to take a concrete shape.
With the result of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections to be out by this year-end, next year will witness a series of assembly polls including in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
A reshuffle of AICC secretariate is likely within a week, which could also see the announcement of some new designation for Rahul Gandhi who is already considered number 2 in the party.
At the day-long Surajkund meeting, Sonia Gandhi had made it clear that there was a need for better coordination and understanding between the party and the government.
