New Delhi: The ruling Congress party`s much- talked about `Chintan Shivir` (brainstorming camp) is expected to be held in mid-January next year at Jaipur, party sources said on Wednesday.
Jaipur, capital of Congress-ruled Rajasthan, has been zeroed in by the party leadership for the conclave which is being called to generate fresh ideas ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, they said.
It will be held at a time when the assembly election results of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will be already out and preparations for assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi would have commenced.
The Chintan Shivir will be a bigger exercise than the just concluded `dialogue meeting` at Surajkund. It is expected to have more representation from the states including chief ministers, PCC presidents and CLP leaders.
The proposed shivir was mooted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the party`s plenary here in December, 2010 but it could not materialise as both the government and the party kept battling one crisis after another since then.
The first such shivir was held at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh in 1998 soon after Gandhi took reins of the organisation. The second shivir held at Shimla in 2003 led to the Congress coming to power at the Centre via the coalition route in May, 2004.
The exercise at Jaipur will be crucial for the party and is expected to be the first such venture after the reshuffle in the AICC secretariat due soon when Rahul Gandhi is set to assume a larger role in the organisation.
PTI
