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Cong panel to tackle intra-party schisms

The committee seeks to utilise Singh’s personal equation with leaders like Mukul Wasnik, Verrappa Moili, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and others who earlier this year had shot off a letter to party chief, Sonia Gandhi seeking a change in the style of functioning of the party.

Cong panel to tackle intra-party schisms

Congress. (File Photo: IANS)

Be it a down and out PCC in West Bengal or as the ruling party in Punjab, the state units of Congress are never short of dissidents.

Now its central leadership has formed a committee to smooth ruffled feathers. Headed by veteran leader Digvijay Singh, the formation of this committee assumes significance in the backdrop of the state Assembly elections scheduled next year at Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.

The composition of the committee confirms it. The presence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra gives the nine-member committee marked political weightage. If Rahul Gandhi’s absence is conspicuous, the inclusion of BK Hariprasad, Uday Raj and Ripun Bora seeks to send a conciliatory message to the dissidents. The necessity of closing ranks before Assembly elections have dawned on the Congress leadership.

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The committee seeks to utilise Singh’s personal equation with leaders like Mukul Wasnik, Verrappa Moili, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and others who earlier this year had shot off a letter to party chief, Sonia
Gandhi seeking a change in the style of functioning of the party.

Rather than her brother, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra finding a place in the committee is a message to the veteran leaders that setting aside past differences of opinion, the leadership wants their experience to be pooled and utilised in the coming state Assembly polls.

It may be recalled that these veterans were rubbed the wrong way after Rahul Gandhi had sharply reacted to their letter to usher in organisational change. In contrast, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s conciliation skills came to light when she persuaded Sachin Pilot to remain in the Congress fold in Rajasthan.

Pilot had almost joined the saffron camp following an intra-party feud. A section of leadership feels the move to be a knee jerk reaction on the eve of the polls. The fence-mending endeavour, it is felt should have been started earlier.

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