Rahul Gandhi revamps Congress, forms panel to replace Congress Working Committee

The 34-member steering committee of the Congress will include Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi.

Pic courtesy: Twitter/@INCIndia

New Delhi:  Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday formed a steering committee that will function instead of the Congress Working Committee for the forthcoming plenary session.

The 34-member steering committee, including Rahul, his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh and the party’s general secretaries, will meet on Saturday.

The steering committee also includes senior leaders AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Digvijay Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Dwivedi, Ashok Gehlot, Sushil Kumar Shinde, P Chidambaram, Oscar Fernandes, Anand Sharma and All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The plenary session, likely to be held before parliament meets on March 5, 2018, may ratify Rahul’s elevation as president of the grand old party, a party leader said, as per PTI.

INC COMMUNIQUE

Announcement of a Steering Committee for the forthcoming Plenary Session of the party. pic.twitter.com/io2EplIDQ2 — INC Sandesh (@INCSandesh) February 16, 2018

“Congress president Rahul Gandhi has constituted a steering committee for the forthcoming plenary session as per Article XV (vii) (b) of the party constitution. The steering committee will function in place of the working committee of the party,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said in a statement.

Rahul had formally taken over as party chief on December 16, 2017, from Sonia, who was at the helm the country`s oldest party for 19 years.

The entire process was completed after the central election authority president Mullapally Ramachandran had handed over the certificate of election to the newly-elected president of the Congress.

Rahul had on December 22, 2017, chaired the CWC meeting for the first time as Congress chief. The CWC had at that time passed a resolution expressing its "deep gratitude" to Sonia`s guidance and leadership.

Rahul had been the party vice president for over four years since 2013. Before him, other members of the family who occupied the post of Congress president were Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia.

(With Agency inputs)