Rahul Gandhi Not Part Of Congress Task Force 2024, Ghulam Nabi & Kharge In Political Affairs Group

Rahul Gandhi has been included in the party's Political Affairs group, which also comprises of two key 'dissenters' -- Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma

New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi announced the party's "Task Force - 2024", which will handle the party's strategy for the next Lok Sabha election, a political affairs group, and another group to coordinate the October 2 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'. The 2024 Task Force does not include Rahul Gandhi and also has no member from the "G-23", a group of dissenting Congress leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 demanding an organisational overhaul.

However, Rahul Gandhi has been included in the party's Political Affairs group, which also comprises of two key "dissenters" -- Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma. This group, headed by Sonia Gandhi, also comprises of Mallikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, KC Venugopal and Jitendra Singh.

"Following the Udaipur Nav Sankalp Shivir, the Congress president has constituted a Political Affairs Group that will be presided over by her, a Task-Force-2024 and a Central Planning Group for the coordination of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'," an official Congress statement said.

The members of the Task Force-2024, which will follow up on the Udaipur 'Nav Sankalp' declaration, are P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Sunil Kanugolu.

"Each member of the Task Force shall be assigned specific tasks related to organization, communications and media, outreach, finance and election management. They shall have designated teams which will be notified subsequently," the statement said.

The Central Planning Group for the coordination of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' includes Digvijaya Singh, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Ravneet Singh Bittu, KJ George, Jothi Mani, Pradyut Bordoloi, Jitu Patwari and Saleem Ahmed.

All members of the Task Force and all heads of the Congress' frontal organisations will be ex-officio members of the central group, the Congress statement said.

What Is Udaipur Nav Sankalp Declaration?

As per the Udaipur Declaration, the Congress has decided to provide 50 per cent representation to those below 50 years of age at all levels of organisation. The declaration mentioned that "no person should hold one party position for more than five years to give opportunity to new people". 

Further, the Congress will enforce '1 person, 1 post', '1 family, 1 ticket' rules with riders and ticket for second family member only after five years of party work. The declaration mentioned that Congress would reach out to all like-minded parties and was open to alliances. The party has also decided to set up three new departments -- public insight, election management and national training.